Hydrothermal Synthesis of Leaf-Shaped Ferric Oxide Particles

For the first time, leaf-shaped ferric oxide particles were prepared from an aqueous solution of potassium ferricyanide [K3Fe(CN)6] by hydrothermal process. Images obtained from SEM (scanning electron microscope) revealed that leaf-shaped ferric oxides (around 1.5 μm in length) were clearly exhibited when the hydrothermal tempreature was 150 °C, while as the temperature was increased to 200 °C leaf-shaped ferric oxide particles with larger size were observed. XRD (X-ray diffraction) patterns testified that the obtained ferric oxides were α-Fe2O3 with well-structured crystal faces. Interestingly, histograms describing the distribution of samples indicated that the distribution of obtained ferric oxide particles did not accord with gaussian distributio