Facile synthesis and photocatalytic activity of cocoon-like hollow hematite nanostructures

Hollow structures are attracting increasing attention due to their unique properties and potential applications in many fields. Despite the great successes achieved in the synthesis of hollow spheres, the preparation of nonspherical hollow structures still remains a great challenge. In this paper, we developed a facile method to prepare hematite hollow structures with cocoon-like shape. The as-prepared hematite nanococoons were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). Such cocoon-like structures are with a uniform diameter of 18 nm, length of 90 nm, and shell thickness of 5 nm. Furthermore, the as-prepared sample exhibited high visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange due to their special hollow structure.

► Nonspherical hollow hematite nanostructures with cocoon-like shape have been synthesized.
► Hematite hollow cocoons were obtained by annealing treatment of silica-coated β-FeOOH nanorods.
► Photocatalytic activity of such novel hollow structures was investigated.