Facile green synthesis of magnetic Fe3C@C nanocomposite using natural magnetite

One simple and environmental friendly synthesis strategy for preparing low-cost magnetic Fe3C@C materials has been facilely developed using a modified sol-gel approach, wherein natural magnetite acted as the iron source. A chelating polycarboxylic acid such as citric acid (CA) was employed as the carbon source, and it dissolved Fe very effectively, Fe3O4 and natural magnetite to composite an iron-citrate complex with the assistance of ammonium hydroxide. The core-shell structure of the as-prepared nanocomposites was formed directly by high-temperature pyrolysis. The Fe3C@C materials exhibited superparamagnetic properties (38.09 emu/mg), suggesting potential applications in biomedicine, environment, absorption, catalysis, etc.