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Fabrication of visible-light-responsive TiO2/α-Fe2O3-heterostructured composite for rapid photo-oxidation of organic pollutants in water

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Abstract

In this present work, a visible-light-responsive TiO2/α-Fe2O3-heterostructured nanocomposite was fabricated by hydrothermal and ultrasonication methods. To unravel the physicochemical and optical characteristics, the as-fabricated photocatalysts were characterized by PXRD, FT-IR, HRSEM, HRTEM, UV–Vis DRS absorption, and PL analysis, respectively. The optical band gap (Eg) of TiO2 and TiO2/α-Fe2O3 were found to be 3.21 and 2.72 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2/α-Fe2O3 composite photocatalyst was evaluated towards the degradation of aqueous methylene blue (MB) dye under visible-light irradiation. The results showed that the heterostructured α-Fe2O3/TiO2 catalyst exhibits faster and higher removal efficiency of (20 ppm) MB dye (92.7%) than the other photocatalytic degradation of pristine TiO2 (33%) and α-Fe2O3 (47.3%) within 100 min. The enriched photocatalytic efficiency is due to the enhanced visible-light response following by interfacial charges transfer between TiO2 and α-Fe2O3 which in turn allows the formation of a high yield of separated electron–hole (e−/h+) pairs and produced of reactive oxygen species. On top of the enhanced photoactivity, TiO2/α-Fe2O3 showed great stability and recycling ability which may encourage its transfer to real use towards the purification of wastewater.

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Acknowledgements

The authors extend their thanks to Research Supporting Project (Ref: RSP-2021/160) King Saud University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PG & Research Department of Physics, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Tamil Nadu, 636007, Salem, India

    S. Kavitha & N. Jayamani

  2. Annai Arts and Science College, Nambipatti, Harur, Tamil Nadu, 636903, Dharmapuri, India

    R. Ranjith

  3. SSN Research Centre, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar (SSN) College of Engineering, Kalavakkam, 603110, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    S. Vignesh

  4. Department of Physics and Nanotechnology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, 603203, India

    Baskaran Palanivel

  5. Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy

    R. Djellabi & C. L. Bianchi

  6. Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Fahad A Alharthi

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  1. S. Kavitha
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Correspondence to N. Jayamani or C. L. Bianchi.

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Kavitha, S., Ranjith, R., Jayamani, N. et al. Fabrication of visible-light-responsive TiO2/α-Fe2O3-heterostructured composite for rapid photo-oxidation of organic pollutants in water. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 8906–8919 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06971-7

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