Structural, Raman and photoluminescence properties of Fe doped WO3 nanoplates with anti cancer and visible light driven photocatalytic activities

Doping is an effective way to tailor the properties of metal oxides for various applications. Herein, a series of Fe doped WO3 nanoplates have been synthesized using a facile co-precipitation method. The successful inclusion of Fe ions doping in the monoclinic structure of WO3 has been confirmed by XRD, EDX, FTIR, XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The optical band gap of WO3 has been facilely tuned with Fe doping which is attributed to positive shift in valance band. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy studies revealed the presence of large number of defects in the crystal structure of WO3. Interestingly, it has been observed that photocatalytic activity of WO3 nanoplates could be significantly enhanced with Fe doping. This enhancement has been linked to the narrowing of optical band gap and lower electron-hole pair recombination rate due to the trapping of electrons by the crystal defects. This study provides a facile and effective method to prepared Fe doped WO3 nanoplates with enhanced visible light driven photocatalytic degradation of methyl red. Furthermore, the Fe doped WO3 nanoplates have also shown highly efficient anticancer activities against human liver (Hep-2) and breast (MCF-7) cancer cells. The percent cell viability of both cancer cells lines is significantly decreased (up to 50%) with Fe doping. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.