Spirally growing on porous C3N4 thin layer with BiOCl nanosheets to enhance NO2 gas sensitivity at room temperature

Abstract

A two-dimensional helical structure formed by directional helical growth of BiOCl nanosheets (NSs) on porous C3N4 thin layers was fabricated by a one-pot oil bath method and applied for the first time to gas sensing. The heterojunction interface formed by the C3N4 thin layer and BiOCl nanosheet can not only effectively inhibit the carrier recombination in the C3N4 sheet, but also form a rapid electron transfer channel between the interfaces. In addition, the microstructural control of BiOCl nanosheets spirally grown on porous C3N4 thin layers essentially increases the particular surface area and the active sites for gas and complicated interactions, hence improving the gas sensitivity of BiOCl nanosheets. The results indicate that BiC-2 has perfect detection limit and sensitivity to NO2 at room temperature. The response value at 100 ppm was 53.05 (Ra/Rg), the response time was 3.2 s, and the detection limit was 10 ppb. This provides a prospect for the future research of gas sensors based on C3N4 and BiOCl.