One-step synthesis of flowerlike C/Fe2O3 nanosheet assembly with superior adsorption capacity and visible light photocatalytic performance for dye removal

A flowerlike C/Fe2O3 nanosheet assembly, in which the surface is coated by a hydrothermal carbon (HTC) layer with thickness of 3-5 nm, has been successfully synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal strategy. Due to the coated HTC layer, the C/Fe2O3 nanosheet assembly exhibits the significantly enhanced efficiency for the removal of organic pollution, including the physically adsorption capacity and the visible light photocatalytic degradation performance. The photocatalytic activity of the C/Fe2O3 nanosheet assembly is almost 4.6 times as high as that of the pure Fe2O3 sample for methylene blue degradation under the visible light irradiation. Besides the adsorption capacity, it is also demonstrated that the HTC coating can facilitate the surface electron migration, resulting in the increased separation efficiency of photogenerated electron/hole pairs. In terms of those experimental results, a possible photocatalytic mechanism of the C/Fe2O3 nanosheet assembly has been proposed and discussed. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.