Metal‐Organic Framework Derived Porous α‐Fe 2 O 3 /C Nano‐shuttles for Enhanced Visible‐light Photocatalysis

Abstract Visible‐light photocatalytic degradation is one of the most intriguing and cost‐effective strategy toward wastewater treatment, wherein one key lies in the design of efficient photocatalysts that afford fast migration of photo‐generated electrons and holes on the interfaces to react with the pollutants. In this article, a rational design of photocatalyst by controlled pyrolyzing Fe‐MIL‐88B MOF precursor was described for the synthesis of porous α‐Fe 2 O 3 /C nano‐shuttles. These nano‐shuttles are very uniform with a length of ∼1.5 μm and width of ∼500 nm, with each one consisting of subunit nanocrystals and interstitial nanopores produced thereby. This unique structure plays an important role in improving photocatalytic activity by increasing the surface area of the material and enhancing the adsorption of the dye molecules. Moreover, this MOF‐derived α‐Fe 2 O 3 /C composite can quickly transfer light‐generated electrons to prevent recombination between photo‐generated electrons and holes, thereby increasing the photo‐carrier concentration, and thus the photocatalytic efficiency can be significantly improved. The results show that methylene blue (MB) degradation rate reaches 85.2% in 210 min under simulated sunlight illumination using porous α‐Fe 2 O 3 /C nano‐shuttle photocatalyst, which is much higher than that of Fe‐MIL‐88B (39.1%), commercial α‐Fe 2 O 3 (20%) and pure α‐Fe 2 O 3 nano‐shuttles (24.4%).