Hydrogen is becoming one of the most promising energy carriers because its combustion products are environmentally friendly and it can be produced directly from sunlight with no need for a carbon source. It has been shown recently that the use of photocatalyst materials in hydrogen generation can also be used for wastewater treatment under light lumination. The aim of the research is to study whether iron oxide is a suitable material in photocatalytic hydrogen production and water purification. Iron oxide is a semiconductor with a bandgap energy of around 2.2eV that is enough for electrons in the conduction band to reduce water and generate hydrogen while the holes in the valence band can photoxidise organic species. Iron oxide is nontoxic and relatively inexpensive. In this study, the iron oxide used in the photocatalytic reactions is a thin film which is coated on the surface of conductive glass. The films produced are highly ordered inverse opals of hematite. BET, XRD and SEM results demonstrate that the iron oxide sintered at a range of temperatures up to 650 ºC retains the hematite structure with a high surface area and a controllable pore size through the modification of preparation techniques. The photoxidation ability of the iron oxide was determined by the degradation of phenol solution under UV or visible light illumination and also shows activity toward the production of hydrogen under specific conditions.