title: Facile synthesis of α-Fe2O3nanodisk with superior photocatalytic performance and mechanism insight.
abstract: Intrinsic short hole diffusion length is a well-known problem forα-Fe2O3as a visible-light photocatalytic material. In this paper, a nanodisk morphology was designed to remarkably enhance separation of electron-hole pairs ofα-Fe2O3. As expected,α-Fe2O3nanodisks presented superior photocatalytic activity toward methylene blue degradation: more than 90% of the dye could be photodegraded within 30 min in comparison with a degradation efficiency of 50% for conventional Fe2O3powder. The unique multilayer structure is thought to play a key role in the remarkably improved photocatalytic performance. Further experiments involving mechanism investigations revealed that instead of high surface area, ·OH plays a crucial role in methylene blue degradation and that O·2-may also contribute effectively to the degradation process. This paper demonstrates a facile and energy-saving route to fabricating homogenousα-Fe2O3nanodisks with superior photocatalytic activity that is suitable for the treatment of contaminated water and that meets the requirement of mass production.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Dahu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Minshen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fengxia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chengchun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan.
authors.forename: Zhongfang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan.
authors.forename: Zhenya
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunyi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhi
keywords: active species; microwave-assisted synthesis; photocatalytic activity; α-Fe2O3