Class of chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen
Electrochemically oxidized iron (rust)
An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen . Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric . Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust .[ 1]
Iron oxides and oxyhydroxides are widespread in nature and play an important role in many geological and biological processes. They are used as iron ores , pigments , catalysts , and in thermite , and occur in hemoglobin . Iron oxides are inexpensive and durable pigments in paints, coatings and colored concretes. Colors commonly available are in the "earthy " end of the yellow/orange/red/brown/black range. When used as a food coloring, it has E number E172.
Iron oxide pigment. The brown color indicates that iron is at the oxidation state +3.
Green and reddish brown stains on a limestone core sample, respectively corresponding to oxides/hydroxides of Fe2+ and Fe3+ .
Iron oxides feature as ferrous (Fe(II) ) or ferric (Fe(III) ) or both. They adopt octahedral or tetrahedral coordination geometry . Only a few oxides are significant at the earth's surface, particularly wüstite, magnetite, and hematite.
Oxides of FeII
Mixed oxides of FeII and FeIII
Oxides of FeIII
Iron oxide
CTE (× 10−6 °C−1 )
Fe2 O3
14.9[ 6]
Fe3 O4
>9.2[ 6]
FeO
12.1[ 6]
In blast furnaces and related factories, iron oxides are converted to the metal. Typical reducing agents are various forms of carbon. A representative reaction starts with ferric oxide:[ 9]
2 Fe2 O3 + 3 C → 4 Fe + 3 CO2
Iron is stored in many organisms in the form of ferritin , which is a ferrous oxide encased in a solubilizing protein sheath.[ 10]
Species of bacteria , including Shewanella oneidensis , Geobacter sulfurreducens and Geobacter metallireducens , use iron oxides as terminal electron acceptors .[ 11]
Almost all iron ores are oxides, so in that sense these materials are important precursors to iron metal and its many alloys.
Iron oxides are important pigments , coming in a variety of colors (black, red, yellow). Among their many advantages, they are inexpensive, strongly colored, and nontoxic.[ 12]
Magnetite is a component of magnetic recording tapes.
^ Cornell., RM.; Schwertmann, U (2003). The iron oxides: structure, properties, reactions, occurrences and . Wiley VCH. ISBN 978-3-527-30274-1 .
^ Lavina, B.; Dera, P.; Kim, E.; Meng, Y.; Downs, R. T.; Weck, P. F.; Sutton, S. R.; Zhao, Y. (Oct 2011). "Discovery of the recoverable high-pressure iron oxide Fe4O5" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 108 (42): 17281– 17285. Bibcode :2011PNAS..10817281L . doi :10.1073/pnas.1107573108 . PMC 3198347 . PMID 21969537 .
^ Lavina, Barbara; Meng, Yue (2015). "Synthesis of Fe5O6" . Science Advances . 1 (5): e1400260. doi :10.1126/sciadv.1400260 . PMC 4640612 . PMID 26601196 .
^ a b Bykova, E.; Dubrovinsky, L.; Dubrovinskaia, N.; Bykov, M.; McCammon, C.; Ovsyannikov, S. V.; Liermann, H. -P.; Kupenko, I.; Chumakov, A. I.; Rüffer, R.; Hanfland, M.; Prakapenka, V. (2016). "Structural complexity of simple Fe2O3 at high pressures and temperatures" . Nature Communications . 7 : 10661. Bibcode :2016NatCo...710661B . doi :10.1038/ncomms10661 . PMC 4753252 . PMID 26864300 .
^ Merlini, Marco; Hanfland, Michael; Salamat, Ashkan; Petitgirard, Sylvain; Müller, Harald (2015). "The crystal structures of Mg2Fe2C4O13, with tetrahedrally coordinated carbon, and Fe13O19, synthesized at deep mantle conditions" . American Mineralogist . 100 (8– 9): 2001– 2004. Bibcode :2015AmMin.100.2001M . doi :10.2138/am-2015-5369 . S2CID 54496448 .
^ a b c Fakouri Hasanabadi, M.; Kokabi, A.H.; Nemati, A.; Zinatlou Ajabshir, S. (February 2017). "Interactions near the triple-phase boundaries metal/glass/air in planar solid oxide fuel cells". International Journal of Hydrogen Energy . 42 (8): 5306– 5314. doi :10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.01.065 . ISSN 0360-3199 .
^ Nishi, Masayuki; Kuwayama, Yasuhiro; Tsuchiya, Jun; Tsuchiya, Taku (2017). "The pyrite-type high-pressure form of FeOOH" . Nature . 547 (7662): 205– 208. Bibcode :2017Natur.547..205N . doi :10.1038/nature22823 . ISSN 1476-4687 . PMID 28678774 . S2CID 205257075 .
^ Hu, Qingyang; Kim, Duckyoung; Liu, Jin; Meng, Yue; Liuxiang, Yang; Zhang, Dongzhou; Mao, Wendy L. ; Mao, Ho-kwang (2017). "Dehydrogenation of goethite in Earth's deep lower mantle" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 114 (7): 1498– 1501. Bibcode :2017PNAS..114.1498H . doi :10.1073/pnas.1620644114 . PMC 5320987 . PMID 28143928 .
^ Greenwood, Norman N. ; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann . p. 1072. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8 .
^ Honarmand Ebrahimi, Kourosh; Hagedoorn, Peter-Leon; Hagen, Wilfred R. (2015). "Unity in the Biochemistry of the Iron-Storage Proteins Ferritin and Bacterioferritin" . Chemical Reviews . 115 (1): 295– 326. doi :10.1021/cr5004908 . PMID 25418839 .
^ Bretschger, O.; Obraztsova, A.; Sturm, C. A.; Chang, I. S.; Gorby, Y. A.; Reed, S. B.; Culley, D. E.; Reardon, C. L.; Barua, S.; Romine, M. F.; Zhou, J.; Beliaev, A. S.; Bouhenni, R.; Saffarini, D.; Mansfeld, F.; Kim, B.-H.; Fredrickson, J. K.; Nealson, K. H. (20 July 2007). "Current Production and Metal Oxide Reduction by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 Wild Type and Mutants" . Applied and Environmental Microbiology . 73 (21): 7003– 7012. Bibcode :2007ApEnM..73.7003B . doi :10.1128/AEM.01087-07 . PMC 2223255 . PMID 17644630 .
^ Buxbaum, Gunter; Printzen, Helmut; Mansmann, Manfred; Räde, Dieter; Trenczek, Gerhard; Wilhelm, Volker; Schwarz, Stefanie; Wienand, Henning; Adel, Jörg; Adrian, Gerhard; Brandt, Karl; Cork, William B.; Winkeler, Heinrich; Mayer, Wielfried; Schneider, Klaus (2009). "Pigments, Inorganic, 3. Colored Pigments". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry . Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. doi :10.1002/14356007.n20_n02 . ISBN 978-3527306732 .
Fe(−II) Fe(0) Fe(I)
Fe(0,II) Fe(II)
Fe(0,III) Fe(II,III) Fe(III) Organoiron(III) compounds
Fe(IV) Fe(VI) Purported
Mixed oxidation states +1 oxidation state +2 oxidation state +3 oxidation state +4 oxidation state +5 oxidation state +6 oxidation state +7 oxidation state +8 oxidation state Related
International National Other