Novel hexagonal-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 heterojunction composite nanowires with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

•h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 composite nanowires were prepared by electrospinning method.•h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 composite nanowires possess high electron–hole seperation efficiency.•h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 composite nanowires exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity.•The photocatalytic mechanism of h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 heterojunction is illustrated.

Novel hexagonal (h)-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 heterojunction composite nanowires were firstly prepared via electrospinning technique assisted with anneal treatment. The results show that the composite nanowires with a diameter of 150 nm are composed by distributed small h-YFeO3 nanograins and continuous α-Fe2O3 nanograins. Compared with pure h-YFeO3 and pure α-Fe2O3, the prepared h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 composite nanowires possess relatively higher electron–hole separation efficiency as well as photocatalytic activity of RhB degradation due to the formed heterojunctions between the h-YFeO3 nanograins and the α-Fe2O3 nanograins. Furthermore, the h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 composite nanowires exhibit good photocatalytic stability. At last, mechanism of enhanced photocatalysis about the h-YFeO3/α-Fe2O3 heterojunction is also illustrated.