Influence of silicon carbide on structural, optical and magnetic properties of Wollastonite/Fe2O3 nanocomposites

Abstract The influence of adding 10, 20 and 30% molar ratio of silicon carbide (SiC) separately to a composite of wollastonite (W) with a fixed content of 10%Fe2O3 prepared by wet precipitation method was studied. The crystal structure of the annealed composite powders was inspected by X-ray diffraction (XRD); revealing multi-phase structure. The highest estimated crystallite size investigated by Scherrer equation of W, SiC, WFe:SiC10, WFe:SiC20 and WFe:SiC30 were 53.89, 54.6, 56.3, 48.5 and 54.6 nm respectively; demonstrating the formation of nanocomposites. Particles shape, size and crystallinity of the samples were studied using high resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The band gap Eg values of the nanocomposites increased with SiC content having an intermediate value that lies between that of γ-Fe2O3 (maghemite) and SiC. Ferromagnetic and paramagnetic contributions were observed in the magnetic hysteresis loops for the composites. This study highlighted that the coercive field (Hci) of the composites improved with increasing the SiC content. The innovative wollastonite/Fe2O3/SiC with amended magnetic properties elicited attention due to their promising application in bone filler and industrial purposes.