The Influence of Reduction Process on the Iron Molybdenum Nanoparticles in Modified MCM-41 Silica

Iron molybdenum silica mesoporous materials were obtained by the application of direct hydrothermal method. The influence of high temperature samples reduction in the H-2 flow on their structural and magnetic properties was studied. Four samples with different metal contents relative to silica were investigated. The study was carried out by means of X-ray diffraction, Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy and the temperature programmed reduction method. With an increasing metals content, primary pores of MCM-41 transformed into the bottle-like pores, and then into the slit-like ones. Reduction and heat treatment caused the alpha-Fe, Fe2Mo, and Fe-Mo alloy formation. Iron and molybdenum atoms after being released into the silica matrix, where they were embedded, create clusters or crystallites. It was observed that the high temperature reduction caused partial transformation of highly dispersed Fe-Mo oxides species initially embedded in silica walls into crystallites big enough to give magnetic sextet component in the Mossbauer spectra.