Functionality of the iron oxides; La funcionalidad de los oxidos de hierro

Some iron oxides have a great scientific and technological possibilities, not only for their importance in the present, but also for their great potential in the development of the future technologies. They have adequate properties to carry out several functions. They are plentiful in the nature and their synthetic obtention is not complex. This paper shows five of them (hematite, magnetite, maghemite, goethite and akaganeite) and their utilization in fields like chemical industry, biotechnology medicine, new materials and electromagnetism. (Author) 77 refs.