Abstract
The aggregation and the rapid restructuring of the photoinduced electron−hole pairs restructuring in the process of photoelectric response remains a great challenge. In this study, a kind of Multi-walled carbon nanotubes loaded Alpha-Fe2O3 (CNTs/α-Fe2O3) heterostructure composite is successfully prepared via the one-step method. Due to the synergistic effect in the as-prepared CNTs/α-Fe2O3, the defect sites and oxygen-containing functional groups of CNTs can dramatically improve the interface charge separation efficiency and prevent the aggregation of α-Fe2O3. The improved photocurrent and enhanced hole–electron separation rate in the CNTs/α-Fe2O3 is obtained, and the narrower band gap is measured to be 2.8 ev with intensive visible-light absorption performance. Thus, the CNTs/α-Fe2O3 composite serves as an excellent visible light photocatalyst and exhibits an outstanding photocatalytic activity for the cationic dye degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). This research supplies a fresh application area forα-Fe2O3 photocatalyst and initiates a new approach for design of high efficiency photocatalytic materials.
Highlights
Many efforts have been dedicated to searching for high photocatalytic activity materials such as n-type semiconductor materials
We reported a novel and simple strategy to solve the aforementioned defect of the α-Fe2 O3 in photocatalytic filed
One could find that a large number of α-Fe2 O3 NPs adhere to the surface of CNTs
Summary
Environmental pollution has become a potential threat to the sustainable development of human ecology. Utilization of solar energy and photocatalyst degrades organic pollutants and produces hydrogen by water splitting, showing great potential in energy conversion and environmental governance [1,2,3]. It is important that one of the greatest challenges under the circumstances of the photo-catalysis is how to optimize the efficiency of photo-catalysts to reduce the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers and enhance the absorption intensity and range of excitation light, which will depend on the types and performances (e.g., crystalline structure, width of the band gap, specific surface and so on) of the photocatalyst. Many efforts have been dedicated to searching for high photocatalytic activity materials such as n-type semiconductor materials
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