Morphological and magnetic features of Ru(III) doped magnetite ultrafine nanoparticles

Abstract Magnetite nanoparticles constitute a class of nanoparticles which is easily manipulated using a magnetic field. Magnetite nanoparticles doped with ruthenium (Ru) ions [Ru_xFe_(3−x)O₄] were synthesized via co-precipitation method where 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5 with step 0.1. The obtained nanopowder was investigated via x-ray diffraction, FTIR, FESEM. It was shown that Ru ions were incorporated successfully into a magnetite structure with a slight influence on the value of the lattice parameter which increased from 8.354 Å at x = 0.0 to be 8.403 Å at x = 0.3, while crystallite size deteriorated from 20.1 nm at x = 0.0 to be around 3 nm at x = 0.3. In addition, the surface roughness average was influenced by the dopant content, where it decreased from 35.6 nm at the pure magnetite to be 25.87 nm at x = 0.3. The ICP examination indicated that the measured contents of Ru ions through competitions were around 41 ppm and increased to 190 ppm comparing with 43 and 199 ppm as a theoretical value both x = 0.1 and 0.5. Regarding magnetic properties, the coercivity raised from 40.11 Oe and raised 44.66 Oe for x = 0.0 and 0.5, respectively. This manipulated behavior of magnetite due to dopant suggests that desired properties could be achieved via the dopant strategy to be used for several applications.