Flame spray pyrolysis is a promising method used for the synthesis of nanoparticles which has several applications in the field of bioelectronics, sensors, fuel cells, solar cells and batteries. Droplet heating and evaporation play a vital role in this process. In this work, the heating and evaporation of droplets of the precursor solution of iron (III) nitrate nonahydrate (INN) in ethanol was studied experimentally. The experiments were performed for particular mass fractions of INN in ethanol. The precursor solution droplet was suspended on a glass fibre of 25 \(\upmu \text {m}\) thickness, and the droplet was exposed to a hot air flow. The temperature of the flow was controlled by the PID controller, and the range of temperature for the experiment was varied from 50 \(^{\circ }\) C to 300 \(^{\circ }\) C. The corresponding air velocities were kept in the range of 1.1 m/s to 3.1 m/s. The effect of temperature on the rate of evaporation was studied, and the corresponding evaporation rates have been reported. The initial phase of droplet evaporation was observed to follow the \(d^2\) law of evaporation, whereas the later phase was characterized by puffing and residue formation.