Reactable Polyelectrolyte-Assisted Synthesis of BiOCl with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

The reactable polyelectrolyte, poly(allylamine hydrochloride), was used for the first time to fabricate BiOCl materials via an assisted solvothermal method. The influence of polyelectrolyte concentrations on the formation of BiOCl was systematically investigated. The samples were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N 2 gas sorption, infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), as well as ultraviolet−visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The results showed that the polyelectrolyte, which acted as reactant, template, or structure-directing agent, had a great effect on the structure of as-fabricated BiOCl materials during the reactive process. The possible formation mechanism of the BiOCl materials has been studied. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of the as-fabricated BiOCl was evaluated by the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the relationship between the structure of the BiOCl materials and the photocatalyic activity was studied in detail. The holes rather than • OH were the predominant active species in the photocatalytic process. Also, it can be supposed that the improved light harvesting, high surface area, O-vacancies, enhanced adsorption capability of dye, faster interfacial charge separation, and the special structure of BiOCl had contributed to the good photocatalytic activity and high photostability of BiOCl microspheres. This route preparing the BiOCl materials with special structure can be expected to be applicable to the preparation of other materials with novel morphologies and advanced properties in all kinds of fields, including photocatalysis and electrochemistry.

Poly(sodium 4‐styrenesulfonate) Assisted Room‐Temperature Synthesis for the Mass Production of Bismuth Oxychloride Ultrathin Nanoplates with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity

“…[3,[7][8][9][10] In the last few years, a variety of synthetic strategies including sputtering and dipping process, [11] template-assisted synthesis, [12] hydrothermal and solvothermal routes, [7][8][9][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] sonochemical approaches, [8,21] hydrolysis methods, [22,23] electrospinning process, [24] and precipitation methods [8,25,26] have been developed for the fabrication of BiOCl nanostructures by using aqueous or/and organic solvent as reaction media. Using these liquid-phase methods, BiOCl nanostructures with various morphologies such as nanowires, [11] nanofibers, [24] nanoplates, [13,[16][17][18][20][21][22]26] nanobelts, [19] nanoflakes, [23] microcrystals, [22] hollow microspheres, [12] as well as three-dimensional (3D) flower-like hierarchical architectures assembled with nanoplates [14,15,25] were routinely designed in high-yield. However, the thickness of BiOCl nanostructures synthesized by these reported methods are generally limited to dozens of nanometers.…”

Ionic liquid‐assisted synthesis of porous BiOBr microspheres with enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance

“…The characteristic peak shows an obvious decrease. And a blue shift is observed which is caused by the step‐by‐step de‐ethylation process …”

“…An ionic liquid, as a kind of green solvent, can self‐assemble into micelles to induce porosity in materials. And we have synthesized porous materials by applying ionic liquids as templates in our previous work . Such an approach can be used to fabricate novel BiOBr materials with large surface area to enhance their photocatalytic activity.…”

A BiOCl/β-FeOOH heterojunction for HER photocatalytic performance under visible-light illumination

“…After the investigation of myriad researchers, photocatalysis technology is found to be an excellent approach to overcome/relieve environmental and energy issues for its many excellent properties, such as easily operating, no secondary pollution, stability, energy saving, and low cost . Currently, because of the representative layered structure and pleasant photo‐responsitivity of BiOCl and its unique electric field from the structure of [Bi 2 O 2 ] 2+ and Cl elements, it exhibits good photocatalytic activity and photocatalytic stability . However, the wide bandgap (~2.9 eV) means that its light absorption range is narrow, and its visible‐light response and photocatalytic activity are lower .…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Currently, because of the representative layered structure and pleasant photo-responsitivity of BiOCl and its unique electric field from the structure of [Bi 2 O 2 ] 2+ and Cl elements, it exhibits good photocatalytic activity and photocatalytic stability. [13][14][15] However, the wide bandgap (~2.9 eV) means that its light absorption range is narrow, and its visible-light response and photocatalytic activity are lower. [16][17][18] How to extend the photo-responsitivity of BiOCl in visible-light region is becoming a focused topic.…”