Iron Oxide Nanocubes for Photocatalytic Degradation and Antimicrobial Applications

摘要

Herein, we report the successful low-temperature synthesis and characterization of iron oxide (alpha-Fe2O3) nanocubes and their potential applications for photocatalytic and antibacterial applications. The nanocubes were synthesized by simple and facile low-temperature aqueous solution process and characterized by several techniques in terms of their morphological, compositional and structural properties. The detailed studies confirmed that the synthesized material possess perfect cube-shaped structures, grown in very high density and possessing well-crystalline rhombohedral crystal phase. The prepared nanocubes were used as efficient photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of highly toxic azo dye, methyl orange (MO). The detailed photocatalytic experiments revealed that the prepared iron oxide nanocubes exhibited 80% degradation of MO in 105 min under UV illumination. Further, the prepared nanocubes were also tested for antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus citreus and Enterobacter.