Hierarchical porous Bi24O31Br10 microarchitectures assembled by ultrathin nanosheets with strong adsorption and excellent photocatalytic performances

Abstract

Construction of hierarchical structure assembled by ultrathin nanosheet is one of the important challenges in material chemistry and photocatalytic field, because this kind of material can combine the advantages of hierarchical structure and ultrathin material. Herein, we propose an ion-exchange approach to the fabrication of novel hierarchical porous Bi24O31Br10 microstructures assembled by ultrathin nanosheets with thicknesses of 3–5nm through a facile reflux process, employing previously-prepared Bi25VO40 micro-cubes as precursors of Bi3+ ions. Experiments revealed that the Bi24O31Br10 hierarchical structures possessed a high surface area (~67.16m2/g) and abundant mesopores, leading to the strong adsorption capacity for rhodamine B (RhB) with high concentration. The maximal adsorption quantity of the product was calculated to be 24.4mg/g. Photocatalytic results demonstrated that the as-prepared Bi24O31Br10 sample exhibited a significant structure-induced enhancement of photocatalytic performance. After 12min of UV–visible-light irradiation, 96% of RhB solution (40mg/L) could be completely decomposed. In addition, the trapping experiments confirmed that photo-generated hole was believed as the chief active specie in the degradation process of RhB molecule. Novelty statementConstruction of hierarchical structure assembled by ultrathin nanosheet is one of the important challenges in material chemistry, because this kind material can combine the advantages of hierarchical structure and ultrathin material. Unfortunately, controllable fabrication about hierarchical porous Bi24O31Br10 microstructures is still a huge challenge until today. Therefore, we afford a facile ion-exchange approach to the fabrication of novel hierarchical porous Bi24O31Br10 microstructures built up by ultrathin nanosheets. Moreover, benefiting from the unique hierarchical and ultrathin structural features, the as-obtained Bi24O31Br10 hierarchical structures exhibited strong adsorption abilities towards RhB with high concentration, as well as superior photocatalytic performance.