Structures and photocatalytic activities of bismuth oxyhalides nanoparticles developed by utilizing a simple reaction

Abstract

The development of novel semiconductor photocatalyst has been regarded as a impeccable method for organic pollutants decomposition and production of hydrogen energy. Well-crystallized BiOX-based (where X = Cl, Br, I) photocatalysts were successfully obtained by facile hydrothermal method using Bi2O3 and NH4X as raw materials with the chemical reaction of Bi2O3 + 2NH4X + H2O = 2BiOX + 2NH3·H2O. The as-prepared bismuth oxyiodides have been characterized by XRD, SEM, UV–vis DRS, EIS and BET. The BiOI particals were single crystals with planar of 500 nm and thickness of 10 nm, which kept good quality of agglomeration and resemble “nanobooks”. The surface area and total pore volume of BiOBr were larger than those of BiOCl and BiOI, it exhibited higher efficiency for the degradation of organic dye, meanwhile, there was no loss of the photocatalytic ability in three successive runs. These results are expected to provide a simple and effective way for synthesis of semiconductor photocatalysts with excellent dye-photosentisized degradation performance.