Continuous Synthesis of Iron Carbide Nanoparticles by the Induction Flow Levitation Technique

Abstract

Fe₃C iron carbide nanoparticles and iron carbide-coated iron (Fe@Fe₃C) nanoparticles have been prepared from bulk iron by the induction flow levitation technique, which has a number of advantages: high production rate (up to 100 g/h), continuity of the process, contactless heating to 2500°C, and absence of harmful emissions. The size of the synthesized nanoparticles is under 24 nm. Two different reagents have been used to prepare iron carbide nanoparticles: acetylene and hexane. The Fe@Fe₃C core/shell nanoparticles have been obtained by reacting condensed nanoparticles with acetylene in a quartz reactor. The average size of their core is 7 nm. All of the synthesized nanoparticles have been characterized by a variety of physicochemical techniques: transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, BET surface area measurements, statistical thickness surface area method, and dynamic light scattering.