Synergistic enhancement of pollutant removal from water by using BiOCl/ BiOBr heterojunction on clay surface and sunlight irradiation

New photocatalysts based on kaolinite-supported BiOClxBr(1-x) solid solution nanocomposites (BiOClxBr(1- x)@Kaol), were synthetized by using ecofriendly co-precipitation approach, for enhanced organic pollutant removal. Thereafter, the photocatalytic performances of the resulting photocatalysts were evaluated by the decomposition of Rhodamine B (RhB) and the Ciprofloxacin antibiotic (CIP) with removal efficiencies of 100 % for RhB dye, and 95 % for CIP antibiotic, within reaction times of, 15 min and 45 min, respectively. In addition, the reuse of the nanocomposite for 5 cycling shows that the removal efficiency relatively remains constant, indicating that the kaolinite clay plays an essential role in the stability of the photocatalyst. These results prove that the BiOClxBr(1-x)@Kaol nanocomposites are suited photocatalysts for a large scale application. Monte Carlo based on adsorption locator module in Material Studio was used to assess the intermolecular behavior and the interaction energies occurring between the BiOClxBr(1-x) (002) and RhB or CIP molecules, on the Kaol (001) surface, to form BiOClxBr(1-x)@Kaol (002)/RhB or BiOClxBr(1-x)@Kaol (002)/CIP.