Morphological Effect of Iron Oxide Thin Films and its Photocatalytic Potential on the Methylene Blue Dye Degradation Efficiency

Abstract

In this research, we are going to examine the fabrication and photocatalytic behaviours of iron oxide thin films synthesized by pyrolytic decomposition of ferrocene at varied loadings of precursor solution 0.1 g and 0.125 g, on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate. The main purpose of this was to study the morphological changes that occurred in the produced nanofilms and how they related to the photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) dye in the presence of sunlight. The thin films produced were analyzed using the UV/Visible spectroscopy, Fourier- transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Morphological analysis showed agglomerated forms of nanoparticles which were well dispersed and almost spherical. The 0.125 g ferrocene sample had a smoother surface texture and uniformity with a higher surface area which gave enhanced photocatalytic degradation efficiency than that of the 0.1 g sample. The results indicate the importance of film morphology towards the improvement of photocatalytic ability of iron oxide thin films in degrading dyes and in environment cleanup programs.