Synergistic effect of modified pore and heterojunction of MOF-derived α-Fe2O3/ZnO for superior photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Liyana Labiba Zulfa; Ratna Ediati; Alvin Romadhoni Putra Hidayat; Riki Subagyo; Nuhaa Faaizatunnisa; Yuly Kusumawati; Djoko Hartanto; Nurul Widiastuti; Wahyu Prasetyo Utomo; Mardi Santoso

doi:10.1039/d2ra07946a

Synergistic effect of modified pore and heterojunction of MOF-derived α-Fe₂O₃/ZnO for superior photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

RSC Adv. 2023 Jan 26;13(6):3818-3834. doi: 10.1039/d2ra07946a. eCollection 2023 Jan 24.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember Surabaya 60111 Indonesia rediati@chem.its.ac.id.
² School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong 999077 China.

Abstract

Mesoporous heterojunction MOF-derived α-Fe₂O₃/ZnO composites were prepared by a simple calcination of α-Fe₂O₃/ZIF-8 as a sacrificial template. The optical properties confirm that coupling of both the modified pore and the n-n heterojunction effectively reduces the possibility of photoinduced charge carrier recombination under irradiation. The mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO with 25% loading of α-Fe₂O₃ exhibited the best performance in MB degradation, up to ∼100% after 150 minutes irradiation, higher than that of pristine ZnO and α-Fe₂O₃. Furthermore, after three cycles reusability, mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO still showed an excellent stability performance of up to 95.42% for degradation of MB. The proposed photocatalytic mechanism of mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO for the degradation of MB corresponds to the n-n heterojunction system. This study provides a valuable reference for preparing mesoporous MOF-derived metal oxides with an n-n heterojunction system to enhance MB photodegradation.