Synthesis of Fe₂O₃powders from local ironstone with varied distillation routes in producing Fe₂TiO₅powders

Synthesis and characterization of Fe₂TiO₅powders with three different Fe₂O₃powders were successfully performed. The Fe₂TiO₅powder was produced by solid-state mixing and calcination of natural ironstone derived Fe₂O₃and commercial TiO₂powders. Production of Fe₂O₃powder was done by the dissolution, coprecipitation, and washing (distillation) processes. In this study, the variations of the washing process were carried out by varying the time (hour) and cycles (times) to acquire the highest purity of Fe₂O₃in producing Fe₂TiO₅. The characterization was performed using XRF, XRD, and SEM. XRF analysis data shows that the washing process affects the amount of Fe₂O₃content of the three powders. XRD analysis showed the success of the formation of a single-phase from Fe₂O₃powders. Meanwhile, the SEM analysis showed that the morphology and size distribution of the Fe₂O₃powders changed with different washing processes. Visually, the Fe₂O₃powders differed in color. The XRD patterns of the calcined mixtures showed the formation of a single phase only on the sample where the Fe₂O₃powder was the darkest in color and exhibited the highest content of Fe according to XRF data. The study concluded that the washing process in the synthesis of Fe₂O₃affected the purity of Fe₂TiO₅powder. Therefore, this study recommends the most reliable Fe₂O₃is the black powder because it has the highest Fe content.