Binary solvent controllable synthesis of BiOCl towards enhanced photocatalytic activity

Preparation of BiOCl with excellent photocatalytic performance via a simple and controllable method is significant for the environmental protection. In this study, microspheric BiOCl with outstanding photocatalytic performance was fabricated through a binary solvent-mediated strategy. The morphologies and phases of samples were controlled by regulating the ratio of ethylene glycol (EG) and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF). As the ratio of EG/DMF decreased, the phases of samples transformed from BiOCl to Bi/BiOCl and the size of the samples become larger. Through exploring the growth mechanism of the synthesized samples, the viscosity of binary solvent was found to be effective in the growth process. When the ratio of EG/DMF was 1/5, the samples exhibited the better photocatalytic performance in the degradation of Rhodamine B than the samples obtained at the single solvent and commercial TiO 2 . This superior photocatalytic performance for the samples prepared in binary solvent of EG/DMF with the ratio of 1/5 was attributed to the microsphere morphologies with appropriate size, largest specific surface areas with mesopore structure and strong adsorption ability. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism in the degradation of Rhodamine B was also proposed based on the experiment of trapping active species.