Polyol-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of Mn-doped α - Fe2O3(MFO) nanostructures: Spin disorder-induced magnetism and photocatalytic properties

R Ramprasath; Velu Manikandan; S Aldawood; S Sudha; S Cholan; N Kannadasan; Sridhar Sampath; B Gokul

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.113866

Polyol-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of Mn-doped α - Fe₂O₃(MFO) nanostructures: Spin disorder-induced magnetism and photocatalytic properties

Environ Res. 2022 Nov;214(Pt 4):113866. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113866. Epub 2022 Aug 8.

Authors

R Ramprasath¹, Velu Manikandan², S Aldawood³, S Sudha¹, S Cholan⁴, N Kannadasan⁵, Sridhar Sampath⁶, B Gokul⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Periyar University, Salem, 636 011, Tamil Nadu, India; Department of Physics, P.D.R.T. Padmavathi Arts and Science College (Women), Dharmapuri, 636902, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of BioNano Technology, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 13120, South Korea.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, P.O. Box 2455, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Gonzaga College of Arts and Science for Women, Elathagiri, Krishnagiri, 635108, Tamil Nadu, India. Electronic address: cholanphd84@gmail.com.
⁵ Department of Physics, Sri Sarada Mahavidhyalayam Arts and Science College for Women, Ulunthoorpetai, Vilupuram, 606107, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁶ Department of Physics, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Avadi, Chennai, 600062, Tamil Nadu, India.
⁷ Department of Physics, Kongunadu Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Coimbatore, 641 029, Tamil Nadu, India.

PMID: 35952748
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113866

Abstract

Hierarchical nanostructures play an important role in environmental clean-up and sustainability applications. The magnetic and photocatalytic characteristics of flower-like Mn-doped α-Fe₂O₃ nanostructures were prepared by using a polyol-assisted hydrothermal method. Crystallite sizes are in the range of 35-42 nm, and the existence of 3D hierarchical nanostructures was observed in FESEM pictures. The optical band gap energy varies between 2.08 and 2.16 eV, while XPS examination exposes the ions' charge states and validates Mn³⁺ inclusion in the Fe³⁺ lattice. At room temperature, the addition of Mn to α-Fe₂O₃ results in a spin disorder ferromagnetism and coercivity of about 600 Oe was achieved. Methylene blue (MB) dye solution degraded by 92% when 2.5% Mn doped with α-Fe₂O₃ under visible conditions for 120 min irradiation time.

Keywords: Fe(2)O(3); Ferromagnetism; Mn-doped α; Photocatalytic; Surface disorder.