Facile synthesis of Mn-doped Fe2O3 nanostructures: enhanced CO catalytic performance induced by manganese doping

In this paper, a facile solvothermal method has been employed to synthesize monodispersed Mn-doped Fe2O3 with shuttle-like nanostructure. The structure of the samples was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Manganese species doped into the Fe2O3 lattice were then confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The doping of Mn ions led to the formation of the shuttle-like structure and increase of the surface area compared to pure Fe2O3. PVP also played an important role in the formation of the shuttle-like structure. The mechanism for the growth of Mn-doped Fe2O3 was proposed as the recrystallization of metastable precursors (RMP) route. H2-TPR measurement revealed better reduction behavior of the Mn-doped Fe2O3. Finally, the as-prepared Mn-doped Fe2O3 exhibited excellent catalytic performance and cycling stability towards CO oxidation.