Anomalous recoilless fraction of 30-Å-diameter FeOOH particles

Hysteresis Loop Shifts in Magnetic Field Cooled FeOOH Nanoparticles

Measurements of the magnetization M as a function of temperature (5K - 300K) and applied magnetic field H (up to 50 kOe) in 30 Å particles of FeOOH are reported. M increases with decreasing T, peaking at TB = 65 K below which the ZFC (zero-field-cooled) and the FC (field-cooled) data separate. Hysteresis loop measured at 10 K for ZFC shows an open loop up to 40 kOe with coercivity = 2 kOe. For the FC case, the loop shifts and the loop-shift increases with the cooling field ItL, approaching saturation above Hc = 20 kOe. From the variation of M vs H above TB, a magnetic moment/particle μp = 300 μB is determined. These results suggest that the FeOOH nanoparticles have an antiferromagnetically ordered core with uncompensated surface spins yielding μp and the surface spins order in a spin-glass-like state below TB, possibly due to interparticle interactions.

An evaluation of least-squares fitting methods in XAFS spectroscopy: iron-based SBA-15 catalyst formulations

A detailed comparison has been made of determinations by (57)Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and four different XAFS spectroscopic methods of %Fe as hematite and ferrihydrite in 11 iron-based SBA-15 catalyst formulations. The four XAFS methods consisted of least-squares fitting of iron XANES, d(XANES)/dE, and EXAFS (k(3)chi and k(2)chi) spectra to the corresponding standard spectra of hematite and ferrihydrite. The comparison showed that, for this particular application, the EXAFS methods were superior to the XANES methods in reproducing the results of the benchmark Mössbauer method in large part because the EXAFS spectra of the two iron-oxide standards were much less correlated than the corresponding XANES spectra. Furthermore, the EXAFS and Mössbauer results could be made completely consistent by inclusion of a factor of 1.3+/-0.05 for the ratio of the Mössbauer recoilless fraction of hematite relative to that of ferrihydrite at room temperature (293K). This difference in recoilless fraction is attributed to the nanoparticle nature of the ferrihydrite compared to the bulk nature of the hematite. Also discussed are possible alternative non-least-squares XAFS methods for determining the iron speciation in this application as well as criteria for deciding whether or not least-squares XANES methods should be applied for the determination of element speciation in unknown materials.