Facile synthesis of α-Fe2O3 pyramid on reduced graphene oxide for supercapacitor and photo-degradation

Abstract We report a novel method to synthesize a novel α-Fe 2 O 3 pyramid interspersed reduced graphene oxide composite by continuous 20-second flame treatment. The structural and morphological characteristics of the obtained composites were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectrum, and Field-emission scanning electron microscopy. Pyramid-type α-Fe 2 O 3 is found to be successfully decorated on reduced graphene oxide. Such a unique composite not only gives a high specific capacitance (965.7 F/g at 5 mV/s) and a good cycling performance, but also shows a strong, stable photo-degradation capacity of Rhodamine-B under simulation solar light (with 100% of degradation rate within 10 min). It is worthy of note that the content of graphene oxide in precursors is found to highly affect the formation of the crystal structure of α-Fe 2 O 3 , thus intensely affecting the electrochemical behaviors and photo-degradation capacity.