Facile Microwave Synthesis of 3D Flowerlike BiOBr Nanostructures and Their Excellent CrVI Removal Capacity

Graphical Well-defined 3D flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by a facile and fast microwave irradiation method by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as both the bromide source and soft template. The as-prepared flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures possess a large surface area and exhibit an excellent removal capacity and fast adsorption rate for Cr VI ions in a wide pH range. A facile and fast microwave irradiation method has been developed to synthesize uniform well-defined 3D flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures through a self-assembly process. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which acts as both the bromide source and soft template, plays a critical role in the formation of 3D flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures. Different flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures could be obtained by varying the CTAB concentration. A possible formation process is discussed. The as-prepared flowerlike BiOBr nanostructures possessed a large surface area and exhibited an excellent removal capacity and fast adsorption rate for Cr VI ions in a wide pH range.