Efficient photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye using facilely synthesized ?-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

In this paper, a-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were fabricated via the combustion process using glucose and sucrose as organic fuels for the first time. The fabricated products were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, HR-TEM, and UV-vis spectrophotometer. The average crystallite size of the a-Fe2O3 samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, is 27.25 and 6.13 nm, respectively. The HR-TEM images confirmed the presence of spherical and irregular shapes with an average diameter of 31.92 and 8.83 nm for the a-Fe2O3 samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, respectively. The optical energy gap of the a-Fe2O3 samples, which were synthesized using glucose and sucrose fuels, is 2.00 and 2.48 eV, respectively. Additionally, the syn-thesized a-Fe2O3 samples were employed as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methyl orange dye under UV irradiations in the absence and presence of hydrogen peroxide. The optimum pH, irradiation time, and dose of a-Fe2O3 that achieved the highest degradation efficiency in the pres-ence of hydrogen peroxide (82.17 % in the case of using an a-Fe2O3 sample which was synthesized using glucose or 95.31 % in the case of using an a-Fe2O3 sample which was synthesized using sucrose) are 3, 100 min, and 0.05 g, respectively.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).