A BiOCl-CuO photocatalyst based on p-n heterojunction and its photocatalytic performance under visible-light

In this paper, the CuO nanoparticles (NPs) with narrow bandgap and near-infrared light response were chosen as the co-catalyst, and a series of BiOCl-CuO (BC-x, x = 1, 2 and 3) heterojunctions with superior visible light response and fast interfacial charge migration were synthesized by a facile one-pot solvothermal method. Then, the morphology, composition, crystal structure, photoelectronic properties and visible-light photocatalytic performance were studied in sequence. Research shows that the incorporation of CuO NPs can effectively enhance the photocatalytic performance of BiOCl semiconductor. For the moderate incorporation of CuO NPs, the p-n heterojunction interfaces can be fabricated between BiOCl and CuO components, so that the light response and interfacial charge migration ability can be effectively improved. Especially, when the content of incorporated CuO NPs was about 0.02 g, the BC-2 heterojunction exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity and very robust photostability in decomposing organic targeted pollutants (acid orange (AO) and bisphenol A (BPA)) and H-2 evolution reaction (HER) experiments under visible-light illumination.