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

Abstract

Hierarchical nanostructures play an important role in environmental clean-up and sustainability applications. The magnetic and photocatalytic characteristics of flower-like Mn-doped alpha-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 alpha-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 alpha-Fe2O3 under visible conditions for 120 min irradiation time.