Band Gap Engineering of MOF-801 via Loading of γ-Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Quantum Dots Inside It as a Visible Light-Responsive Photocatalyst for Degradation of Acid Orange 7
Roghayyeh Ghasemzadeh, Kamran Akhbari
Abstract
The band gap engineering technique based on the loading of γ-Fe 2 O 3 quantum dots (QDs) inside a metal–organic framework-801 (MOF-801) porous matrix was utilized to fabricate a visible light-responsive MOF-based photocatalyst. The post-synthetic modification (PSM) approach was applied for loading of γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs inside the MOF-801 porous matrix so the γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs were immobilized inside the MOF-801 via the double-solvent method (DSM) combined with an in situ reduction route (ISRR), for the first time. The results showed that the absorption edge of the γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs@MOF-801 nanocomposite was red-shifted to a longer wavelength than MOF-801, and the band gap energy of γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs@MOF-801 was reduced to 3.1 eV compared to MOF-801 with a band gap energy of 4.4 eV; as a result, the γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs@MOF-801 nanocomposite became photoactive to visible light. γ-Fe 2 O 3 QDs@MOF-801 showed a degradation efficiency of 84.15% for acid orange 7 after 180 min of visible light irradiation.