Synthesis and characterization of a novel magnetic carrier with its composition of Fe3O4/carbon using hydrothermal reaction

In this study, a simple method to prepare a novel magnetic carrier based on carbon matrix has been built by heating the aqueous solution of glucose and oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle at 170 °C for 3 h. The results show that the surface hydrophobic modification of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle is necessary for the successful synthesis of Fe₃O₄/C nanocomposition, and a possible formation mechanism of Fe₃O₄/C nanocomposition was presented. The influence of the reaction parameters such as the concentration of oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle, the reaction time, etc. on the product was also investigated. In the typical reaction (2.5 g/L of oleic acid-stabilized Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle, 0.5 M of glucose), Fe₃O₄/C nanocompositions with the average diameter in the range 100–200 nm were obtained and its saturation is 12.4 emu/g. In order to characterize Fe₃O₄/C nanocompositions, XPS, XRD, FT–IR, and Mössbauer spectra were employed.