A novel synthesis of hollow Fe3O4 nanorods with a high saturation magnetization

A novel approach combined Stӧber method with the hydrothermal method was developed for the synthesis of hollow Fe3O4 nanorods by using SiO2 as the template and FeOOH nanorods as the precursor. The investigation of the reaction process confirmed that, as the SiO2 outer layer was gradually dissolved and partially nitrided to Si3N4 in an alkaline hydrazine solution, FeOOH was converted to Fe3O4, resulting in a regular rod-shaped morphology with a hollow structure. The prepared hollow Fe3O4 nanorods had an average length of 430 nm and an average width of 110 nm, and exhibited a high saturation magnetization of 81.6 emu g−1.