Reusable iron sulfide nanospheres towards promoted photocatalytic and electrocatalytic activities
Abstract
We report a facile electrochemical route for the synthesis of FeS nanospheres on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO, SnO2:F) coated glass substrates. X-ray diffraction revealed the formation of the troilite phase of FeS, whereas field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy revealed highly compact surface morphology with evenly distributed almost spherical grains. Optical measurements showed a direct band gap energy of ∼1.95 eV, characteristic of FeS. The prepared FeS films showed significant photocatalytic degradation towards some widely used hazardous chemicals like Alizarin Red S, Methylene Blue, Rose Bengal and phenol. FeS modified FTO electrodes also showed excellent electrochemical properties towards hydrogen peroxide reduction and hence could be used as an efficient H2O2 sensor. The proposed sensor exhibited a good linear response in the range 10–700 μM with a detection limit of 2.699 μM with sensitivity 0.38717 μA μM−1 under optimal conditions.