Supplementary Material (ESI) for CrystEngComm

This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010

Electronic Supplementary Information

Uniform Self-Assembled Magnetite Chains: Facile Synthesis and Magnetic
Properties

Rongzheng Liu, Yuzhen Zhao, Rongxia Huang, Yongjie Zhao and Heping Zhou*
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Department of Materials Science
and Engineering, Tsinghua University.
Beijing, 100084 (P.R.China)

Synthesis of the Cobalt chains

1 mmol of CoCl2•6H2O and 0.6 g of NaOH were dissolved in 40 mL of EG under magnetic

stirring. The mixture was transferred into a 50 ml Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave, sealed
and maintained at 200 °C for 10 h. After the reaction, the product was collected by
centrifuging and sequentially washing with ethanol and deionized water for several times, and
then dried in a vacuum oven at 60 °C for 4 h.

Synthesis of Co (or Cu) doped magnetite chains

1 mmol of FeCl3•6H2O, 0.1 mmol of CoCl2•6H2O (or CuCl2•6H2O) and 0.6 g of NaOH were
dissolved in 40 mL of EG under magnetic stirring. The mixture was transferred into a 50 ml
Teflon-lined stainless steel autoclave, sealed and maintained at 200 °C for 10 h. After the
reaction, the product was collected by centrifuging and sequentially washing with ethanol and
deionized water for several times, and then dried in a vacuum oven at 60 °C for 4 h.

Fig.S1 EDX spectrum of an individual Fe3O4 chains. The signals of Au and C are resulted from
sputtering of Au and the conducting resin, respectively.
Supplementary Material (ESI) for CrystEngComm
This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010

200nm

Fig.S2 Morphologies of the products at different reaction times (a) 1 h; (b) 1.5 h; (c) 2 h; (d) 24 h.
Supplementary Material (ESI) for CrystEngComm
This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010
200
d „ 111 „ fcc Co
150
e
¥ hcp Co

100
Intensity(a.u.)

M (emu/g)
50

0
002

112
101

-50

110
311
100

¥ 200
¥ 220
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¥ -100

-150

-200
40 50 60 70 80 90 100 -8.0k -4.0k 0.0 4.0k 8.0k
2θ (degrees) H (Oe)
Fig.S3 (a) and (b) SEM images, (c) EDX spectrum, (d) XRD pattern, and (e) room temperature
magnetic hysteresis curve of the Co chains. The results showed hierarchically self-assembled
structure of the Co chains. The phases of the chain-like structure were the mixed structures of fcc
Cobalt (JCPDS 15-0806) and hcp Cobalt (JCPDS 05-0727). Magnetic measurement showed high
saturation magnetization value (156.1 emu/g) with the coercivity of 81 Oe.
Supplementary Material (ESI) for CrystEngComm
This journal is (c) The Royal Society of Chemistry 2010

100
e Cu doped sample
Co doped sample
50

M (emu/g)
0

-50

-100
-4.0k -2.0k 0.0 2.0k 4.0k
H (Oe)
Fig.S4 SEM images of the Fe3O4 chains after doping of (a) Co; (b) Cu; EDX analysis of the Fe3O4
chains after doping of (c) Co; (d) Cu; (e) Room temperature magnetic hysteresis curves of the
doped samples. Experiment results showed that after doping of other elements the products still
maintained the chain-like shape. Doping of Cu induced the blocking unit size decreasing from 2
μm to 200 nm in average with a lower saturation magnetization value. While in the case of Co
doped sample, the particle size maintained unchanged but the coercivity increased to a large extent
(from 57 Oe to 92 Oe) without decreasing the saturation magnetization.