Facile Synthesis Of Biocl Nanoflakes With Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Activity

BiOCl has been identified to be a promising semiconductor material with exceptional performance for photodegradation of organic pollutants. In this work, a feasible strategy to synthesize octagon-like BiOCl nanoflakes (G-BiOCl NFs) with novel morphology was developed by one-step solvothermal reaction in ethylene glycol/water solution with the addition of glutamate acid. The obtained G-BiOCl NFs with large surface areas and negatively charged surfaces possessed excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic pollutant Rhodamine B (RhB). RhB was almost completely degraded in only 4 mins under ultraviolet-visible light irradiation. It was confirmed that the holes and O-.(2)- played crucial roles in the RhB photocatalytic degradation process. This work provided a new strategy for the preparation of efficient photocatalysts.