Preparation and Investigation of Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB Transparent Nano-Composite Films

Fe 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CTAB transparent nano-composite films were prepared by means of a two-step acid-catalyzed method and sol-gel process using surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the starting material, iron nitrate Fe(NO 3 ) 3 ·9H 2 O as iron source material. Optical properties, structural and magnetic characteristics of the films were investigated by UV-visible spectra, FT-IR spectra and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The transparency of the high temperature treated Fe 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CTAB nano-composite films exceeds the glass substrate. It is also found that the saturation magnetization (Ms) of the films increases with the treating temperature. The magnetization measurements reveal that Fe 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CTAB nano-composite films display normal ferromagnetic behaviors. It is also shown that the CTAB plays a key role in the optical and magnetic properties of Fe 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -CTAB composite films.