Hematite porosity

Synthetic 5-FeOOH has a surface area which ranges from 20-300 m g depending on the thickness of the crystals. In a series of seven synthetic feroxyhytes the surface area increased from 140 to 240 m g (EGME method) as the crystallinity decreased (Garlson and Schwertmann, 1980). 5-EeOOH displays interpartide porosity, i.e. slitshaped micro- or mesopores between the plate like crystals (Jimenez-Mateos et al., 1988 Ishikawa et al., 1992). Both TEM observations and t-plot analysis showed that 0.8 nm micropores formed upon dehydroxylation at 150 °G in vacuo. The surface area rose steeply as the temperature exceeded 100 °G and reached a value close to 150 m g at 200 °C at which temperature, the sample was completely converted to hematite. 

Toca, C.G. (1981) Desorption of phosphate from iron oxides in relation to equilibrium pH and porosity. Geoderma 26 203—216 Caillere, S. Gatineau, L. Henin, S. (1960) Preparation a Basse temperature d hematite alu-mineuse. Comp. Rend. 250 18—22 Cambier, P. Picot, C. (1988) Nature des lia-sions kaolinite-oxyde de fer au sein des mi-croagregats dun sol ferralitique. Sci. du Sol 28 223-238... 

At temperatures greater than a 100°C, thermal degradation of carboxylic acids produces methane and carbon dioxide (Surdam et ai, 1984). As the carboxylic acid anions are consumed due to increasing temperature, the carbonate system becomes internally buffered, and thus the pH may decrease due to increased in the system, leading to carbonate dissolution and the enhancement of secondary porosity (Surdam et ai, 1984). Factors influencing the thermal destruction rate of organic acids include coupled sulphate reduction and hydrocarbon oxidation, and the mineralogy of host sediments (Bell, 1991) the presence of hematite causes rapid rates of acetic acid decomposition. 

A dielectric oxide layer such as silica is useful as shell material because of the stability it lends to the core and its optical transparency. The thickness and porosity of the shell are readily controlled. A dense shell also permits encapsulation of toxic luminescent semiconductor nanoparticles. The classic methods of Stober and Her for solution deposition of silica are adaptable for coating of nanocrystals with silica shells [864,865]. These methods rely on the pH and the concentration of the solution to control the rate of deposition. The natural affinity of silica to oxidic layers has been exploited to obtain silica coating on a family of iron oxide nanoparticles including hematite and magnetite [866-870]. The procedures are mostly adaptations of the Stober process. Oxide particles such as boehmite can also be coated with silica [871]. Such a deposition process is not readily extendable to grow shell layers on metals. The most successful method for silica encapsulation of metal nanoparticles is that due to Mulvaney and coworkers [872—875]. In this method, the smface of the nanoparticles is functionalized with aminopropyltrimethylsilane, a bifunctional molecule with a pendant silane group which is available for condensation of silica. The next step involves the slow deposition of silica in water followed by the fast deposition of silica in ethanol. Changes in the optical properties of metal nanoparticles with silica shells of different thicknesses were studied systematically [873 75]. This procedure was also extended to coat CdS and other luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals [542,876-879]. 

In this study, the related properties of oxidized pellets, prepared with bentonite and magnetite concentrates, are listed in Table I. As seen from Table I, the iron grade of pellets is 65.13 % and the porosity is 13.34 %. The microstructure of the raw material was examined and shown in Figure 1. As it is shown in Figure 1, the oxidized pellet before reduction is mostly composed of a matrix of hematite grains developed by direct bonding between adjacent grains. 

---