Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3), magnetite (Fe3O4), and maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3) micropine dendrites were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method and oxidation-reduction process. The samples have been thoroughly characterized by various physicochemical techniques. The adsorption ability, quantum efficiency, and the photo-induced charge separation of the electron-hole pair in the samples were demonstrated by the XPS, FTIR, UV-vis, and PL spectroscopy. The alpha-Fe2O3 showed higher catalytic activity than the other two samples for photocatalytic oxidation of gaseous toluene. This may be attributed to the phasetransformationinduced crystal plane effect of the alpha-Fe2O3 micropine dendrite, which has relatively more reactive crystal planes {0 0 1} and {1 1 0} exposed on the surface of alpha-Fe2O3. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.