Incorporating Semiautomatic Coprecipitation Apparatus and Gas Nitriding for Synthesis of Iron Nitride from Natural Iron Sand

Indra Sidharta (Department of Mechanical Engineering ITS Surabaya)
Intan Y. P. Perindasari (Department of Physics, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia)
Darminto (Department of Physics, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia)
Abdullah Shahab (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya 60111, Indonesia)

JMES: The International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences
Vol 10 No 2 (2026)

This study aimed to synthesize iron nitride (Fe3N) material using Fe3O4 as the starting material. The synthesis process included coprecipitation of natural iron sand and gas nitriding under flowing NH3 gas. Semiautomatic coprecipitation apparatus was implemented during coprecipitation process, to improve powder yield and reproducibility of Fe3O4 nanopowders. The results of XRD and SEM showed that the semiautomatic coprecipitation apparatus could produce consistent product in terms of final quantity and powder morphology. Furthermore, Fe3N was produced after gas nitriding for different holding times. Iron oxides, Fe3O4 and Fe2O3, were still detected in the powder, showing that nitriding parameter was insufficient to produce Fe3N completely. VSM measurement on the final powder showed typical soft magnetic behavior, with maximum saturation magnetization of 17.21 emu/g and coercivity at 0.04 Oe after 6 hours of nitriding. This study provided an alternative method for local soft magnetic composite production using abundant Indonesian resources.