Layered oxide semiconductor In2Fe2CuO7: Optical properties and visible-light responsive photocatalytic abilities

• In2Fe2CuO7 nanoparticles were synthesized through the sol-gel method.
• In2Fe2CuO7 exhibits excellent visible-light-induced activity to MB degradation.
• The excellent photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the narrow band gap.
• In2Fe2CuO7 has a good chemical stability and high photocatalytic activities.

Transition metal oxide In2Fe2CuO7 nanoparticles were prepared by the sol-gel film coating and subsequent sintering method. The phase formation was investigated by X-ray polycrystalline diffraction (XRD) measurement. The structure refinement confirmed that the sample has a pure hexagonal phase with the space group of P63/mmc. The detailed surface properties were characterized. In2Fe2CuO7 shows an efficient optical absorption in the region of visible wavelength and has a narrow band-gap of 1.91 eV. Particularly, In2Fe2CuO7 presents the efficient photodegradation for methylene blue (MB) solutions under visible-light irradiation. The nanoparticles could be a potential photocatalyst for the photodegradation for organic pollution solutions.