α-Fe2O3 nanostructures with different morphologies: Additive-free synthesis, magnetic properties, and visible light photocatalytic properties

Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) nanostructures with different morphologies have been synthesized by a simple ethylene glycol (EG)/H2O system using FeCl3 and urea as raw materials without adding any additives. Structure and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that the as-prepared samples are alpha-Fe2O3 microflowers, nanospindles, nanoparticles and nanorhombohedra. The magnetic properties and visible light photocatalytic properties of the products were investigated. The magnetic hysteresis measurements showed interesting magnetic property evolution among these alpha-Fe2O3 products, which can be attributed to their superstructure or the shape anisotropy. The photocatalytic measurements indicated that the alpha-Fe2O3 samples exhibit good photocatalytic property for Rhodamine B. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.