A selective morphosynthetic approach for single crystalline hematite through morphology evolution via microwave assisted hydrothermal synthesis

Abstract

Abstract Hematite single crystals are one of most promising materials which is able to apply for the field of catalyst industry. Even its prospective applicability, strategies for improving its catalytic performance are still not enough to meet the requirements for industrial application. In the present work, we demonstrate a morphology selective one pot reaction for a hematite single crystal by microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis. The microwave-assisted hydrothermal route, taking advance of the exposed crystal facet-based activity of the material, is suggested to crystal facet controlling synthesis of the hematite crystal. The dispersant and capping agents such as sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and N 2 H 4 , respectively, play a very important role in controlling the exposed crystal facet and morphological uniformity for a selective morphology of hematite crystal. In addition, systematically experimental examination of the well-exposed facet is interestingly giving an insight into the crystal growth and morphological evolution of single crystalline hematite from plate to tetrahexagonal bipyramid, octahedral and oblique cubic shape. Physicochemical techniques were used to characterize and evaluate the photoactivity of the material in detail. In here, a well-defined crystal facet is obtained and expected to be applied as an efficient catalysts and its synthetic methodology is applicable to other metal oxide photocatalyst.