Biosynthesis of mesoporous organic–inorganic hybrid Fe2O3 with high photocatalytic activity

A very simple approach with yeast cells as a biotemplate was proposed to synthesize a mesoporous hybrid Fe2O3 photocatalyst. The mesoporous structure of the resultant samples was characterized by BET, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms (NADI) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The chemical bond linkages in hybrid Fe2O3 samples were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR). The catalytic activities of mesoporous hybrid Fe2O3 on degradation of methyl orange were investigated under UV-light irradiation. The hybrid Fe2O3 (yeast cell amount is 0.6 g) samples dried at 80 °C and calcined at 300 °C exhibit high surface area and photocatalytic activity.