When circularly polarized light travels through a ferrofluid film in the presence of an applied magnetic field, the transmitted light will behave as elliptically polarized light, because of magnetic birefringence and dichroism. The angular distribution o the relative intensity of the transmitted light can be obtained using a polarizer, so that the ratio of both the long and short ax es-as well as the orientation angle of the ellipse, corresponding to the direction of the applied magnetic field-can be deter mined, and whether the ferrofluids samples are stable during the measurement can be directly judged from the shape of the distribution curves. Thus, the ratio of the amplitudes Ax/Ay and the added phase difference can be resolved in the elliptically polarized light, and information on both the magnetic birefringence n and the dichroism k can be deduced for the ferrofluid sample. From the orientation angles of both right-handed and left-handed elliptically polarized transmitted light, the direction of the applied magnetic field can be accurately determined. Using circularly polarized light, the magnetic birefringence and dichroism of pure γ-Fe2O3 ferrofluids and γ-Fe2O3/ZnFe2O4 binary ferrofluids were studied. For the binary ferrofluids, a mod ulating effect on the magnetic birefringence and dichroism was revealed.
FU Jun LI Jian LIN YueQiang LIU XiaoDong MIAO Hua LIN LiHua
γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a chemically induced transformation of α-FeOOH.In this method,the precursor(α-FeOOH)was prepared by chemical precipitation,and then treated with a mixed FeCl2/NaOH solution to produce the nanoparticles.X-ray diffraction indicated that when the precursor was treated with FeCl2(0.22 mol/L)and NaOH(0.19 mol/L),pure γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were obtained.However,when the concentration of FeCl2 was<0.22 mol/L or the concentration of NaOH was<0.19 mol/L,α-FeOOH and γ-Fe2O3 phases co-existed in the nanoparticles.Transmission electron microscopy observations showed that in the samples with co-existing phases,the nanoparticles did not have identical morphologies.The pure γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were polygonal rather than spherical.The volume ratio of α-FeOOH and γ-Fe2O3 was estimated for the two-phase samples from magnetization data obtained from a vibrating sample magnetometer.This chemically induced transformation is novel,and could provide an effective route for the synthesis of other metal oxide nanocrystallites.
MIAO Hua LI Jian LIN YueQiang LIU XiaoDong ZHANG QingMei FU Jun
Fe5O7(OH)4H2O ferrihydrite is a low-crystallinity antiferromagnetic material.c-Fe2O3(maghemite)magnetic nanoparticles were prepared from a ferrihydrite precursor,by chemically induced transformation in FeCl2/NaOH solution.The magnetization,morphology,crystal structure and chemical composition of the products were determined by vibrating sample magnetometry,transmission electron microscopy,X-ray diffraction(XRD),energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS).Ferrihydrite underwent aggregation growth and transformed into a-FeO(OH)(goethite)particles,which subsequently transformed into c-Fe2O3nanoparticles,that became coated with NaCl.The c-Fe2O3particles had a flake-like morphology,when prepared from 0.01 mol/L FeCl2and a FeCl2:NaOH molar ratio of 0.4.The c-Fe2O3particles were more spherical,when prepared from a FeCl2:NaOH molar ratio of 0.6.The Fe content of the flake-like particles was lower than that of the spherical particles.Their magnetizations were similar,and the coercivity of the flake-like particles was larger.The differences in morphology and magnetization were attributed to the surface effect,and the difference in coercivity to the shape effect.
Xiaomin GongJian LiYueqiang LinXiaodong LiuLonglong ChenJunming LiDecai Li
