Regular articles

Photocatalytic properties of hierarchical BiOXs obtained via an ethanol-assisted solvothermal process


Lirong Song , Manke Jia , Shulian Wang , Xiaolong Hu , Yingping Huang

DOI:10.1016/j.jes.2014.09.045

Received June 20, 2014,Revised August 29, 2014, Accepted September 05, 2014, Available online July 09, 2015

Volume 35,2015,Pages 172-180

In this study, bismuth oxyhalide (BiOXs (Xdouble bond; length as m-dashCl, Br, I)) semiconductors were prepared by a simple solvothermal method, with ethanol serving as solvent and a series of tetrabutylammonium halide surfactants as halogen sources. Under identical synthetic conditions, BiOBr was more readily constructed into regular flower-like hierarchical architectures. The photocatalytic properties of the materials were studied by monitoring the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB), with visible light absorption, and colorless salicylic acid (SA). It was found that both RhB and SA were rapidly degraded on the surface of BiOBr. BiOCl was rather active for the degradation of RhB, but ineffective toward the degradation of SA. However, neither RhB nor SA could be degraded effectively in the case of BiOI. Further experiments such as UV–visible spectroscopy and detection of radical dotOH and O2radical dot radicals suggest that the electronic structure of the BiOX photocatalysts is responsible for the difference in their activities.

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