BiOCl Nanorings with Co-Exposed (110)/(001) Facets for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes

Abstract

A BiOCl nanoring with co-exposed (110)/(001) facets is presented, which is prepared by selectively etching (001) facets of BiOCl nanosheets based on a selective etching mechanism. The BiOCl nanorings display a high photocatalytic performance toward organic dyes including butyl rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO). The results show that 40 mg of BiOCl nanorings can degrade 40 mL of RhB (10 mg L −1 ) in 4 min. Besides, 40 mL of 30 mg L −1 RhB can be completely degraded within 14 min. The reaction rate constant of 1.659 min −1 for BiOCl nanorings is seven times higher than that of the BiOCl nanosheets. In addition, 40 mg of BiOCl nanorings can degrade 97% of 40 mL (10 mg L −1 ) MO in 2 min. The good photocatalytic performance is ascribed to the formation of type-II junctions between ( 001) and ( 110) facets. It is expected that the specific nanoring structure presented here would find broad applications for developing many other emerging high-performance photocatalysts.

BiOCl Nanosheets with Vacancy Containing (001) and (110) Facets for the Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Contaminants

“…As shown in Figure S1, the results showed that ratios of I 110 / I 102 and I 110 / I 101 are larger than that of I JCPDS , further confirming the preferred growth of (110) facet in the whole crystal-growth process, which is in agreement with literature results . Orientation growth of the (110) facet facilitates the construction of facet junction in the crystalline phase …”

“…For instance, Peng et al and Zhao et al synthesized the (001)/(110) binary facet homojunction in BiOCl, which greatly accelerated the separation of e − −h + pairs. 22,23 Li et al developed the (001)/ (102)/(112) ternary facet junction in BiOCl to attain effective spatial separation of charge carriers, showing excellent photocatalytic performance for hydrogen production. 21 Moreover, the defects on the active facets of BiOCl nanosheets may act as reactive sites for photocatalytic reactions and enhance the performance of photocatalysts.…”

“…Constructing facet junctions in BiOCl can effectively address the mismatch problem of heterostructures and thus enhance the migration efficiency of the photogenerated charge carrier. For instance, Peng et al and Zhao et al synthesized the (001)/(110) binary facet homojunction in BiOCl, which greatly accelerated the separation of e – –h + pairs. , Li et al developed the (001)/(102)/(112) ternary facet junction in BiOCl to attain effective spatial separation of charge carriers, showing excellent photocatalytic performance for hydrogen production . Moreover, the defects on the active facets of BiOCl nanosheets may act as reactive sites for photocatalytic reactions and enhance the performance of photocatalysts. − For instance, Zou et al reported BiOCl photocatalysts with abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs), which showed enhanced adsorption and improved photocatalytic performance as compared to the BiOCl photocatalyst with little OVs.…”

Synthesis and application of type-II heterojunctions based on CdS and g-C3N5 for efficient photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics

“…46 It was considered that the current was unstable at 0-150 s at the beginning, the photocurrent would fall off because of the large size of the samples and the internal carrier separation does not reach a steady state. 47,48 The semicircle of the Nyquist plot represented the charge transfer resistance. The smaller the radius, the faster the charge was transferred.…”

The photoluminescence of isolated and paired Bi3+ ions in layered LnOCl crystals: a first-principles study

“…The defect complex of V Bi with a nearest V Cl has been calculated, which shows a small possibility of electron-hole recombination due to the small spatial overlap between the electrons and hole polarons. Ultrathin structures are designed to reduce the charge-diffusion distance so as to separate the electrons and holes efficiently 25,60 and impurity ions, such as Mn, C, N, etc., are introduced to trap carriers to inhibit electron-hole recombination and decrease the band gap to enhance visible light harvesting. 61,62 Besides, the defect O Cl serves as a photoluminescence quenching center by calculation.…”