Abstract
A BiOCl/TiO2/diatomite (BTD) composite was synthesized via a modified sol–gel method and precipitation/calcination method for application as a photocatalyst and shows promise for degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater upon visible-light irradiation. In the composite, diatomite was used as a carrier to support a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) nanosheets. The results show that TiO2 nanoparticles and BiOCl nanosheets uniformly cover the surface of diatomite and bring TiO2 and BiOCl into close proximity. Rhodamine B was used as the target degradation product and visible light (λ > 400 nm) was used as the light source for the evaluation of the photocatalytic properties of the prepared BTD composite. The results show that the catalytic performance of the BTD composite under visible-light irradiation is much higher than that of TiO2 or BiOCl alone. When the molar ratio of BiOCl to TiO2 is 1:1 and the calcination temperature is 400 °C, the composite was found to exhibit the best catalytic effect. Through the study of the photocatalytic mechanism, it is shown that the strong visible-light photocatalytic activity of the BTD composite results mainly from the quick migration of photoelectrons from the conduction band of TiO2/diatomite to the surface of BiOCl, which promotes the separation effect and reduces the recombination rate of the photoelectron–hole pair. Due to the excellent catalytic performance, the BTD composite shows great potential for wide application in the field of sewage treatment driven by solar energy.
Highlights
In recent decades, with intense industry development and worldwide social economy growth, the discharge of wastewater has been continuously increasing
The diffraction peaks of the prepared bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) are in good agreement with the standard X-ray diffraction (XRD) data of JCPDS No
When the calcination temperature is higher than 500 °C, BiOCl will gradually change to Bi2O3, and Bi2SiO5 and Bi2Ti2O7 will be formed (Figure 1b)
Summary
With intense industry development and worldwide social economy growth, the discharge of wastewater has been continuously increasing. In the BTD composite (Figure 4d and 4e), the disc-like morphology of diatomite is still intact, and abundant and welldispersed TiO2 nanoparticles and BiOCl nanosheets can be Beilstein J. The results show that diatomite in BTD is tightly connected with TiO2 and BiOCl, which mainly acts as a carrier to solve the problem of agglomeration of TiO2 and BiOCl. Photocatalytic activity analysis
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