Synthesis of monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles: Effect of temperature, time, solvent, and surfactant

Iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by the thermal decomposition of iron-oleate. The effects of reaction temperature, time, solvent, and surfactant were tested. The synthesized NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis,, and Fourier transform infrared. The results show that reaction time has little effect on the sizes of synthesized NPs, while the solvent directly decides the sizes. There is a most appropriate temperature to fulfill perfect monodisperse iron oxide NPs. Moreover, different surfactants lead to different shapes of synthesized NPs.