One-step synthesis of single phase micro-sized BaFe12O19 hexaplates via a modified hydrothermal approach

Abstract Single phase BaFe 12 O 19 ferrite identified by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy has been successfully synthesized using Fe(NO 3 ) 3 ·9H 2 O and Ba(NO 3 ) 2 as starting materials and NaOH as a precipitant via a modified one-step hydrothermal approach which involves the elimination of carbonate radicals from reaction system based on the stoichiometric ratio of [Ba 2+ ]/[Fe 3+ ]. Hydrothermal products under various synthetic conditions were studied, including different addition amounts of Ba(NO 3 ) 2 in the modified operation, reaction temperatures and times, and hydroxyl concentrations. The BaFe 12 O 19 particles featuring an excellent hexagonal plates shape can be hydrothermally synthesized with the aid of polyethylene glycol. It has been found that the presence of α-Fe 2 O 3 in a traditional hydrothermal process is motivated by the deviation from the desired [Ba 2+ ]/[Fe 3+ ] ratio caused by the negligent precipitation of Ba 2+ ions to BaCO 3 . An investigation on the preferred hydrothermal product through thermodynamic calculation shows that the reduction in Gibbs free energy for the exclusive formation of BaFe 12 O 19 with 1 mol of Fe 3+ ions at 220 °C is approximately 32 kJ higher than that for the complete transformation to α-Fe 2 O 3 with an equal consumption quantity of Fe 3+ ions.