Iron(III) oxide
Iron oxide also known as ferric oxide, Hematite, red iron oxide, synthetic maghemite, colcothar, or simply
rust is one of several oxide compounds of
iron, and is most notable for its ferromagnetic properties. Its
chemical formula is
Fe2
O3.
Encyclopedia
Iron oxide — also known as
ferric oxide,
Hematite,
red iron oxide,
synthetic maghemite,
colcothar, or simply
rust — is one of several oxide compounds of
iron, and is most notable for its ferromagnetic properties. Its
chemical formula is
Fe2O3.
Different forms
The
mineral form of ferric oxide is
hematite; it is mined as the main ore of iron.
Iron oxide is often used in magnetic storage, for example in the magnetic layer of
floppy disks. These consist of a thin sheet of PET film, coated with iron oxide. The particles can be magnetised to represent
binary data.
MICR also uses iron oxide compounds, suspended in an
ink which can be read by special scanning hardware.
A very fine powder of ferric oxide is known as
jeweller's rouge,
red rouge, or simply
rouge. It is used to put the final polish on metallic
jewellery and lenses, and historically as a
cosmetic.
Rouge cuts slower than some modern polishes, such as
cerium oxide, but is still used in optics fabrication and by jewelers for the superior finish it can produce. When polishing gold, the rouge slightly stains the gold, which contributes to the appearance of the finished piece. Rouge is sold as a powder, paste, laced on polishing cloths, or solid bar . Other polishing compounds are also often called "rouge", even when they do not contain iron oxide. Jewelers remove the residual rouge on jewelry by use of ultrasonic cleaning.
Uses
Iron oxide is used in the production of pure iron in a blast furnace.
Iron oxide is also used in an extremely exothermic reaction called a
thermite reaction.
2
Al +
Fe2O3 ? 2
Fe +
Al2O3Iron oxide is also used as a
pigment, under names
Pigment Black 11,
Pigment Brown 6,
Pigment Brown 7, and
Pigment Red 101 . Some of them, eg. Pigment Red 101 and Pigment Brown 6, are
Food and Drug Administration -approved for use in cosmetics.
See also
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s
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References
"GreenwoodEarnshaw": N. N. Greenwood, A. Earnshaw,
Chemistry of the Elements, Pergamon Press, 1984.
External links
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