We are so far involved in the development of complete decomposition of organic wastes as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by the use of thermally activated holes in titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) at high temperatures of about 350-500°C. In this study, we intend to replace TiO 2 with α-Fe 2 O 3 (red hematite) in order to lower the operation temperature and also to electrically characterize α-Fe 2 O 3 on the basis of the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity and Seebeck potential. Powdered α-Fe 2 O 3 is found to exhibit a higher electrical conductivity at 500°C by three orders of magnitude as compared with that of room temperature. In addition, the Seebeck potential is negative in the temperature range between room temperature and 380°C, indicating that the dominant charge carriers are mostly holes. Our α-Fe 2 O 3 -coated catalyst-system exhibits equivalent or even better characteristics than that of TiO 2 , although the specific surface of α-Fe 2 O 3 (4.10m 2 /g) is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of TiO 2 (298 m 2 /g).