Black BiOCl with oxygen vacancies was prepared by UV light irradiation with Ar blowing. The as-prepared black BiOCl sample showed 20 times higher visible light photocatalytic activity than white BiOCl for RhB degradation. The trapping experiment showed that the superoxide radical (O(2)(•-)) and holes (h(+)) were the main active species in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation.

COMMUNICATIONPerkinElmer TGA Pyris1 instrument fi lled with nitrogen and heating rate was set at 10 ° C min − 1 .

We present a two-step synthesis process to produce hierarchical ZnO nanoarchitectures that involves the preparation of ZnO nanosheet arrays by the pyrolysis of the precursor Zn5(OH)8Cl2 electrodeposited on conductive glass substrates, followed by the aqueous chemical growth (ACG) of dense ZnO single-crystalline nanowires on the surfaces of the primary ZnO nanosheets. The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on the hierarchical ZnO nanowire−nanosheet architectures showed a power conversion efficiency of 4.8%, which is nearly twice as high as that of the DSSC constructed using a photoanode of bare ZnO nanosheet arrays. The better photovoltaic performance of hierarchical ZnO nanoarchitecture DSSC was due to a better dye loading and light harvesting as a consequence of the enlargement of the internal surface area within the photoanode. Moreover, the improved performance for the DSSC with the hierarchical ZnO nanowire−nanosheet architectures may be also ascribed to more light scattering behavior through extending the optical path length within the photoanode so as to increase the light harvesting. The results demonstrate potential application of the hierarchical ZnO nanoarchitectures derived from ZnO nanosheet arrays for highly efficient DSSCs.

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