Electrospinning synthesis and photocatalytic property of Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 heterostructure for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline

• Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 heterostructure nanofibers were synthesized by a ficile electrospinning method.
• Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 heterostructure nanofibers showed excellent photocatalytic performance.
• The possible mechanism was proposed for the better photocatalytic activity.

Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 nanofibers with heterostructure had been successfully synthesized by electrospinning method. The obtained samples were systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–vis DR). The novel Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 nanofibers exhibit an enhanced photocatalytic activity for degrading of tetracycline (TC) under visible light. Compared with bare Fe2O3 or MgFe2O4 samples, the prepared Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 (Fe:Mg=0.4:2.6) composited nanofibers show the best photocatalytic performance with a degradation efficiency of 48.7% after 2 h reaction time. This enhancement is attributed to the heterostructure of Fe2O3/MgFe2O4 nanofibers, which effectively repress the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes.