UV light enabled photocatalytic activity of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles synthesized via phase transformation

Abstract In this work, hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by co-precipitation method involving chemical precipitation of aqueous salts of iron (Fe2+/Fe3+) using NaOH aqueous solution. The synthesis of α-Fe2O3NPs via phase transformation and its photocatalytic application under ultra violet (UV) light is rarely reported. The maximum removal of methylene blue (MB) dye (92%) was achieved at pH 10 and 200 mg amount of catalyst, whereas the concentration of dye was 10 ppm. The removal percentage of MB dye was found to vary with pH of the solution, concentrations of dye, and amount of α-Fe2O3 NPs for certain interval of time. Moreover, plot of ln(Ct/C0) Vs time exhibited almost a linear relationship between them which suggested the pseudo-first order kinetics reaction of photocatalytic degradation of MB.