Glycerol-Assisted Hydrolysis Synthesis of BiOCl and Excellent Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Performance

Visible-light-driven bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) was successfully synthesized by a facile and environmentally friendly glycerol-assisted hydrolysis method at low temperature. The as-prepared BiOCl was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS) and nitrogen adsorption. It was found that glycerol played a key role in the formation of BiOCl and the possible growth mechanism was also proposed. The characterization results showed that BiOCl had a tetragonal crystal structure, surface area of 35.30 m(2).g(-1), and band gap energy of 3.24 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of as-prepared BiOCl was determined by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The BiOCl exhibited excellent visible-light-driven photodegradation efficiency. The remarkable visible-light activity was mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of layered structure and strong adsorption of RhB upon BiOCl. The mechanism study showed that superoxide anion radical played important roles in RhB photodegradation and a possible photosensitization degradation pathway was proposed.