Electrical Properties of Semiconductive α-Fe2O3 and Its Use as the Catalyst for Decomposition of Volatile Organic Compounds

We are solar involved in the development of complete decomposition of organic wastes as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by the use of thermally activated holes in titanium oxide (TiO2) at high temperatures of about 350-500 degrees C hi this study. we intend to replace TiO2, with alpha-Fe2O3 (red hematite) in order to lower the operation temperature and also to electrically characterize alpha-Fe2O3 on the basis of the temperature dependence of electrical conductivity mid Seebeck potential Powdered alpha-Fe2O3 is found to exhibit a higher electrical conductivity at 500 degrees C by three orders of magnitude as compared with that of room temperature In addition. the Seebeck potential is negative in the temperature range between room temperature and 380 degrees C, indicating that the dominant charge carriers ale mostly holes Our alpha-Fe2O3-coated catalyst-system exhibits equivalent or even better characteristics than that of TiO2, although the specific surface of alpha-Fe2O3 (4 10 m(2)/g) is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of TiO2 (298 m(2)/g) [doi 10.2320/matertrans.M2010064]