Ni2+/surfactant-assisted route to porous α-Fe2O3 nanoarchitectures

Uniform porous three-dimensional nanoarchitectures of alpha-Fe2O3 with high yield have been synthesized by a route based on a Ni2+/surfactant system. The obtained alpha-Fe2O3 has a flue-like porous morphology with a rough surface. What is more, spatially ordered nodes and meshes are presented in these networks. By adjusting the experimental parameters such as temperature, reaction time, proportion of Ni2+/PVP and types of cation, we can control the morphology of the samples well. A possible formation mechanism is proposed to explain the growth of the flue-like nanostructures. The obtained flue-like porous alpha-Fe2O3 has a large specific surface area of 88.82 m(2) g(-1). It exhibits significantly enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance in the degradation of methylene blue, compared with alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. This work not only enriches the synthesis methods of porous architectures, but also facilitates the applications of alpha-Fe2O3 in the fields of water treatment, sunlight utilization and so forth.