Synthesis of Fe-substituted aluminosilicate and aluminogermanate nanotubes

Abstract: In this paper, substitution of Fe3+ for Al3+ in the structure of aluminosilicate and aluminogermanate nanotubes was investigated at various mole ratios of Fe/Al from the mixed Al2O3-Fe2O3-SiO2 (GeO2)-H2O solution in experimental conditions of 2 mM initial concentration and 2 day aging time at 980C. The synthesized products were confirmed and characterized by using FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and magnetometer. The results indicated that Fe-substituted aluminosilicate and aluminogermanate nanotubes were successfully synthesized with the Fe/Al ratio of the initial solutions up to 2. For both Fe-substituted nanotubes, the paramagnetic property exhibits at room temperature (300 K) and a ferromagnetic property at low temperature (5 K). The materials with new properties appear to have promising practical application in other fields in the future.Key words: Imogolite, nanotube, substitution, aluminosilicate, aluminogermanate