Effect of doping on structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of bismuth oxychloride nanomaterials

Abstract

Silver (Ag)/Nickel (Ni)/Vanadium (V) doped bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) with a doping concentration of 2, 4 and 6 wt% was synthesized using wet chemical method. In this paper, their structural, morphological, compositional, optical and photocatalytic properties are studied. The crystallite size of pure and doped BiOCl was calculated using XRD analysis and was found to be in the range 25–40 nm. For Ag doped BiOCl nanocatalyst the crystallite size was the smallest, around 26 nm. The morphology of the as prepared doped samples was studied using SEM and AFM characterization and was found to be a 3D flower-like hierarchical structures having length 100–500 nm and thickness around 20–50 nm. No intermediate phases were formed, and this was confirmed by XRD and FTIR analysis. Decolourization of methylene blue (MB) dye within 5 h due to the addition of doped BiOCl in the presence of UV–visible light was studied using UV–visible spectroscopy. A higher photocatalytic activity of metal (Ag, Ni and V) doped BiOCl was observed in the initial 1 h by decomposition of MB dye to 50 %. The Ag doped BiOCl exhibited superior photocatalytic activity. In the present work, doped BiOCl emerged as a promising photocatalyst for degradation of organic pollutants in water and for environmental remediation. Raman and PL spectra of doped BiOCl revealed higher intensity peaks and blue shift with the increase in concentration of dopants.