Structural variations as a function of surface adsorption in nanostructured particles

Macroscopic (adsorption isotherm and micro-calorimetry measurement) and microscopic (in situ X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy) approaches were used to study the influence of water adsorption on γ-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles. A nonmonotonic variation of γ-Fe 2 O 3 lattice parameter is revealed when the relative water pressure (p/p 0 ) increases from 0.03 to 0.96 with a maximum deviation for p/p 0 0.1. With IR spectroscopy, similar results were observed since a modification of γ-Fe 2 O 3 structural bands has been shown. In situ investigations as well as thermodynamics considerations lead to one important conclusion: the variation of the lattice parameter is in relation with the strains induce…