Green Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanostructures

Abstract

Iron oxide nanoparticles are continuously drawing researchers’ attention because of their unique electronic and physiochemical properties in the fields of catalysis, environmental remediation, bio-imaging, and drug delivery, and so on. Iron oxide nanoparticles are mainly prepared by the chemical reduction of iron precursors, but the environment toxicity and expensiveness of reducing agent limits its application. Recently many people reported the leaf extract as a reducing agent for the synthesis of the variety of NPs as economical, environmentally friendly, and biocompatibility source. In this study, we report a simple, low cost, time-consuming and environment-friendly synthesis of iron oxide and iron oxide/Au coated nanorods using green tea extract as a reducing agent. On the other hand, iron-oxide tubes were also synthesized by a heat treatment method using a cotton template. The as-synthesized particles were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy. The crystalline structure and the phase change were clarified by XRD. The FESEM analysis revealed the morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles. The average surface area of the microtubes synthesized was found to be 72 m2/g from BET. The synthesized nanoparticles were used as Fenton as a catalyst for organic dye degradation, reduction of 4-NP to 4-AP and Oxidation of THF.