Synthesis of metastable hard-magnetic epsilon-Fe2O3 nanoparticles from silica-coated akaganeite nanorods

We present a simple preparation route to obtain a nanoscale meta-stable hard-magnetic epsilon-Fe2O3 phase, using silica coated beta-FeOOH nanorods as a precursor and an annealing process. The synthesized epsilon-Fe2O3 nanoparticles exhibit large coercivity (H-C similar to 20 kOe at 300 K and H-C similar to 1.6 kOe at 400 K), confirming their high potential for practical applications.