Fabrication, Growth Mechanism, and Characterization of alpha-Fe2O3 Nanorods

Abstract

This work reports the facile synthesis of alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods and nano-hexagons and its application as sunlight-driven photocatalysis. The obtained products were characterized by :X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), diffused reflectance, spectroscopy (DRUV-vis), Fourier transform infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The phase and crystallinity were confirmed from he XRD study. Electron microscopy study clearly indicates the formation of different morphologies of nanocrystals. These hematite nanostructures were used as a Model system for studying the. shape-dependent photocatalytic degradation of phenol, methylene blue, and congo red. Amongst all the nanostructured semiconductors, Pt-doped hematite nanorod showed 55% efficiency towards the decolonization of methylene blue and 63% toward congo red under sun light illumination. The difference in photocatalytic activity is discussed in terms of their crystallize size and morphological ordering.