Manufacture of acicular .gamma.-iron(III) oxide

In a process for manufacturing acicular .gamma.-iron(II) oxide wherein an aqueous solution of an iron(II) salt is reacted with an aqueous solution of an alkali metal hydroxide and the resulting suspension of iron(II) hydroxide is oxidized with oxygen or oxygen-containing gases to give goethite, reducing the resulting goethite to magnetite and oxidizing the magnetite to acicular .gamma.-iron(III) oxide, the improvement comprising:

• carrying out the oxidation of the iron(II) hydroxide suspension in three stages wherein in a first stage from 4 to 15% by weight of the amount of iron(II) present is oxidized in the course of from 0.4 to 5 hours, in a second stage from 60 to 85% by weight of the amount of iron(II) originally present in the suspension is oxidized over an additional period of from 1.5 to 6 hours by introducing 0.3 to 0.9 moles per hour of oxygen/gram atom of the iron contained in the suspension at the beginning of said second stage and gradually increasing the supply of oxygen during said second stage up to 0.7 to 1.5 moles per hour of oxygen/gram atom of iron at the end thereof;
• and in a third stage oxidizing the remaining iron(II) by introducing 1.5 to 2.5 moles of oxygen per hour per gram atom of iron contained in the suspension.