High purity hematite nanoparticles have been synthesized by a facile method using naturally occurring laterites for industrial dye effluent treatment applications.

Thin films of akaganeite [FeO(OH)] nanorices deposited muscovite mica (ANPM) surfaces are synthesized using the facile urea assisted controlled self-assembly technique. The synthesized materials are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The prepared nanorices on mica surfaces show average particle length and width of 200 and 50 nm, respectively. Synthesized material acts as an efficient photocatalyst under UV and sunlight conditions as demonstrated by the degradation of standard methylene blue (MB) solution. The MB degradation efficiencies of the catalyst under exposure to 180 min sunlight and UV are 89% and 87.5%, respectively, which shows that the catalyst is more highly active under sunlight than under UV light. Therefore, the synthesized material is a potential green photocatalyst in efficient treatment of industrial dye effluents under direct sunlight.