Abstract The effect of Fe2O3 as catalyst on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide was found to be weak, which was not consistent with the literature. Based on this, this paper described the catalytic performance of Fe2O3 in chemical production and its catalytic mechanism, indicated that the performance of Fe2O3 with different crystal forms was different, and analyzed the reason of different effects of hydrogen peroxide decomposition. It was found that the γ-Fe2O3 crystal form had strong catalytic activity under laboratory conditions, and the long-term preservation Fe2O3 powder after 30 minutes of burning helped to improve its catalytic activity.