Magnetic porous iron oxide monoliths prepared through epoxide-mediated sol-gel process

Abstract Magnetic porous iron oxide monoliths were obtained using a polyethylene oxide-mediated sol-gel process. The hierarchical porous structure in the xerogel monolith of FeO(C3H7O3)0.69(OH)0.31·0.42(HCl)·1.08(polyacrylamide) was preserved with pore diameters of 1–4 μm in the oxide monoliths after calcinations in air at 350 °C for various duration. The iron oxide monolith exhibited ferromagnetic behavior in magnetization vs. magnetic field curve after firing at 350 °C for 6 h. Both magnetization and magnetic coercivity can be optimized by changing the calcinations condition to obtain the iron oxide monoliths. The ferromagnetic iron oxide monolith will be much more useful in continuous separation than magnetic particles in a wide range of separation especially in biotechnology industry.