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Abstract

The nickel doped iron oxide nanoparticles type hematite (a-Fe2O3) have been prepared by ball milling method using Logas natural sand as a raw material. The hematite nanoparticles were doped using nickel with concentration of 0, 5, 10 wt.% and characterized by vibration sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. The magnetic measurement demonstrate that magnetic properties are strongly depend on nickel content and revealed that all of the samples exhibited weak ferromagnetic behaviour with the coercivity ranged from 336 Oe to 357 Oe. The XRD measurements confirmed the formation of crystalline, rhombohedral crystal structure and a-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Nickel doped samples show nickel-hematite phase as indicated through XRD measurement. The average crystallite size calculated based on Scherrer formula found to be 31.73, 29.09 and 28.38 nm after being doped with nickel 0, 5 and 10 wt.%, respectively which are consistent with the results obtained from SEM images. Some other elements such as aluminium, silicon and titanium and others elements were detected using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF), which demonstrates that these milled samples are not purely hematite.