In-situ sunlight-driven tuning of photo-induced electron-hole generation and separation rates in bismuth oxychlorobromide for highly efficient water decontamination under visible light irradiation

Oxygen vacancies-rich nanoflower-like UV-BiOCl0.8Br0.2 were fabricated via 10-minute sunlight irradiation. The fabricated oxygen vacancies-rich nanoflower-like UV-BiOCl0.8Br0.2 films demonstrated outstanding quantum yield over the pristine P-BiOCl0.8Br0.2 under the same operating conditions. The presence of oxygen vacancies on the surface of the UV-BiOCl0.8Br0.2 significantly improves light-harvesting and spatial separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs.