A single-source hydrothermal route to synthesize porous hematite particles and their photocatalytic activity

In this work, we have successfully synthesized porous hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) particles with reasonable surface area by the hydrothermal treatment of iron(II) D-gluconate aqueous solution and the calcination at 550 degrees C. These porous alpha-Fe2O3 particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microcopy and N2 adsorption-desorption technique. The results indicated that these alpha-Fe2O3 particles have high porosity at mesoscale, and the specific surface area can reach 35.1 m2/g. The evaluation of photocatalytic activities of porous alpha-Fe2O3 particles for photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) aqueous solution in the presence of H2O2, indicated that porous alpha-Fe2O3 particles exhibit good visible-light photocatalytic activities. Therefore, the prepared porous alpha-Fe2O3 particles are of great interest in photocataytic degradation of dyes.