Size Controlled Synthesis of Fe3O4 Nanoparticles by Ascorbic Acid Mediated Reduction of Fe(acac)3 without Using Capping Agent

Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by ascorbic acid mediated reduction of Fe (acac)3, without using any intentionally added capping agent. Fine tuning of synthesis parameters such as dropping rate of ascorbic acid solution, addition temperature, reflux temperature and time, and concentration of reactants have yielded nanoparticles of size 15±4 nm. Synthesis is observed to be highly reproducible. Possible mechanism for growth of Fe3O4 nanoparticles is suggested. Nanoparticles are characterized for their size, crystallinity and crystal structure, elemental analysis for impurities (if any), and presence of any additional oxide phases – by SEM and TEM, XRD, EDAX and XPS spectroscopy, respectively.