Facile synthesis of hollow α-Fe2O3 nanospindle and its superior photocatalytic performance for water oxidation

Abstract Hollow α-Fe2O3 nanospindles have been designed and fabricated via a facile wrap–bake–peel process consisting of silica coating, calcination treatment and the removal of the silica coating layer. The excellent photocatalytic performance was attributed to the obtained hollow structure and the improved crystallinity of the photocatalyst, which also has good reusability in photocatalytic water oxidation, achieving up to 4 times higher activity than pristine Fe2O3 and the apparent quantum efficiency (AQE) of H2 evolution reaches up to 2.14%. These results demonstrate that the hollow α-Fe2O3 nanospindles can be acted as a promising candidate for highly efficient photocatalyst of water oxidation.