Synergistic effect of modified pore and heterojunction of MOF-derived alpha-Fe2O3/ZnO for superior photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue

Mesoporous heterojunction MOF-derived alpha-Fe2O3/ZnO composites were prepared by a simple calcination of alpha-Fe2O3/ZIF-8 as a sacrificial template. The optical properties confirm that coupling of both the modified pore and the n-n heterojunction effectively reduces the possibility of photoinduced charge carrier recombination under irradiation. The mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO with 25% loading of alpha-Fe2O3 exhibited the best performance in MB degradation, up to similar to 100% after 150 minutes irradiation, higher than that of pristine ZnO and alpha-Fe2O3. Furthermore, after three cycles reusability, mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO still showed an excellent stability performance of up to 95.42% for degradation of MB. The proposed photocatalytic mechanism of mesoporous Fe(25)ZnO for the degradation of MB corresponds to the n-n heterojunction system. This study provides a valuable reference for preparing mesoporous MOF-derived metal oxides with an n-n heterojunction system to enhance MB photodegradation.