Facile fabrication of hematite nanoparticles from Egyptian insecticide cans for efficient photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye

In the current paper, Egyptian insecticide cans were utilized as an iron source. Also, malic, tartaric, citric, and succinic acids were utilized as organic fuels for the combustion fabrication of hematite nanoparticles which were named HM, HT, HC, and HS, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) proved that the crystallite size of the HM, HT, HC, and HS products was 63.52, 69.38, 71.91, and 65.13 nm, respectively. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) demonstrated that irregular and spherical shapes have an average diameter of 60.60, 70.21, and 68.80 nm were noticed in the HM, HT, and HS products, respectively. Besides, hexagonal shapes have an average diameter of 73.41 nm were noticed in the HC product. As well as, the thermal analysis demonstrated that the total weight loss percentages of the HM, HT, HC, and HS products are 1.074, 2.534, 2.165, and 5.495 %, respectively. Hence, this assured the stability of the hematite products. The optical energy gap of the HM, HT, HC, and HS products was 1.90, 1.30, 1.50, and 1.40 eV, respectively. The % degradation of Rhodamine B dye under the influence of Ultraviolet (UV) using HM, HT, HC, and HS products was 57.39, 51.08, 48.77, and 56.40 % after 3 h. Also, the % degradation of Rhodamine B dye under the influence of UV and H2O2 using HM, HT, HC, and HS products was 100 % after 60, 70, 75, and 65 min, respectively. Hence, the fabricated hematite nanoparticles can be viewed as a proficient photocatalyst for the degradation of Rhodamine B dye.