One-pot combustion synthesis of BiVO4/BiOCl composites with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic properties

A visible-light-active BiVO4/BiOCl photocatalyst with a heterojunction structure was obtained by a simple one-pot combustion method. The structures, morphologies, optical and visible-light photocatalytic properties of as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and photoluminescence (PL). The experimental results reveal that BiVO4/BiOCl composites were successfully obtained and the composites exhibited distinctly improved efficiency for Rhodamine B (RhB) in comparison with pure BiVO4 and BiOCl. BiVO4/BiOCl-0.1 shows the highest photocatalytic activity with a degradation ratio of similar to 85% in 180 min. The formation of the heterojunction contributes to the separation of photo-generated holes and electrons, leading to improved photocatalytic activities. In addition, the as-synthesized BiVO4/BiOCl composite shows excellent photostability in a six-cycle photocatalytic experiment, and the primary active species (.OH and h(+)) and photocatalytic mechanism of the photodegradation reaction were discussed in detail. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.