OSnano

Step 5: Cook and Grow Magnetite Crystals

Cooking

  • Mix 1 grams of rust with 20 grams of fatty acid mixture in a glass or steel container (erlen or pan) and provide stirring.
  • Cover the top of the container with a loose cap for proper ventilation (reaction smokes and steams). This method produces 50-90 nm nanocrystals but if you want to make them smaller (~15-20 nm) you have to use a steam/pressure cooker instead.
  • Start heating and timing. It should be cooked at around 2 hours (or less) until complete/dark black solution with little or no smoking. Open a Window! This reaction smells bad especially after boiling point of water: 100 degrees C).

    • Magnetite Crystals

    On the left what you should get and on the right what they look like under electron microscope.

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