Preparation and properties of ferrite derived from iron oxidizing bacteria

The growth characteristics of Sphaerotilus natans and Leptothrix discophora SS-1 (ATCC43182) were first used to fabricate the ferrite and manganese ferrite. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrant sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to make clear their morphology microstructure, chemical composition, crystal structure, and magnetostatic characteristic. The result showed that the hollow ferrite fibers were prepared successfully, whose crystal structures were close to α-Fe ₂O ₃ and the average aspect ratio was over 50. Moreover, the soft magnetic manganese ferrite was fabricated with the saturation magnetization Ms at 25 emu/g and coercive force H _c at 796 A/m.