Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as Potential Scaffold for Photocatalytic and Sensing Applications.

Abstract

Herein, we report photocatalytic and fluorescence sensing applications of iron oxide (α-Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles synthesized by facile low-temperature simple solution process. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by several techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) attached with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-visible spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The detailed analysis revealed that the synthesized nanoparticles were well-crystalline, grown in very high density and possessing rhombohedral α-Fe₂O₃ crystal structure. The prepared nanoparticles were used as efficient scaffold for photocatalytic and sensing applications. The detailed photocatalysis results revealed that in presence of an appropriate amount of α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles as photocatalyst, a significant dye degradation of methyl orange (MO) was observed in 140 min. In addition, the fabricated florescence sensor based on α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles exhibited a low detection limit of ∼3.33 μM/L towards picric acid. The observed results clearly confirmed that the synthesized α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles are potential scaffold for photocatalysis and sensing applications.