Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
MDPI
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
24663
Funders
Australian Research Council
College students Innovation and Enterprise Training Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No: 201313646005Y)
Grant Number
ARC Number : DP150103026
Abstract
Three-dimensional flower-like BiOI/BiOX (X = Br or Cl) hybrids were synthesized via a facile one-pot solvothermal approach. With systematic characterizations by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)specific surface area, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), the BiOI/BiOCl composites showed a fluffy and porous 3-D architecture with a large specific surface area (SSA) and high capability for light absorption. Among all the BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I) and BiOI/BiOX (X = Cl or Br) composites, BiOI/BiOCl stands out as the most efficient photocatalyst under both visible and UV light irradiations for methyl orange (MO) oxidation. The reaction rate of MO degradation on BiOI/BiOCl was 2.1 times higher than that on pure BiOI under visible light. Moreover, BiOI/BiOCl exhibited enhanced water oxidation efficiency for O2 evolution which was 1.5 times higher than BiOI. The enhancement of photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the formation of a heterojunction between BiOI and BiOCl, with a nanoporous structure, a larger SSA, and a stronger light absorbance capacity especially in the visible-light region. The in situ electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) revealed that BiOI/BiOCl composites could effectively evolve superoxide radicals and hydroxyl radicals for photodegradation, and the superoxide radicals are the dominant reactive species. The superb photocatalytic activity of BiOI/BiOCl could be utilized for the degradation of various industrial dyes under natural sunlight irradiation which is of high significance for the remediation of industrial wastewater in the future.
DOI
10.3390/nano7030064
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Liu, Y., Xu, J., Wang, L., Zhang, H., Xu, P., Duan, X., ... & Wang, S. (2017). Three-dimensional BiOI/BiOX (X = Cl or Br) nanohybrids for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity. Nanomaterials, 7(3), Article 64.
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano7030064