MOF-derived porous Fe2O3 with controllable shapes and improved catalytic activities in H2S selective oxidation

We report here a facile approach to tune the morphology of Fe-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) of MIL-53(Fe), in which acetic acid is used as a modulator to adjust the assembly directions of the MOFs. As a result, MIL-53(Fe) with controllable morphologies including spindle and short columnar shapes are synthesized. Following the pyrolysis of the MOFs, porous Fe2O3 with preserved morphologies are obtained. Impressively, the synthesized Fe2O3 exhibits enhanced performance in catalytic selective oxidation of H2S to sulfur, with the morphologies showing an influence on the catalytic properties.