Novel Bi2S3-sensitized BiOCl with highly visible light photocatalytic activity for the removal of rhodamine B

Bi2S3-sensitized BiOCl photocatalyst (Bi2S3/BiOCl) was synthesized through a facile and economical ion exchange method between BiOCl and thioacetamide. XRD, XPS, Raman, FT-IR, DRS, SEM, EDS, TEM, HRTEM, SAED and BET were employed to study the properties of Bi2S3/BiOCl heterostructure. To evaluate the photocatalytic activity of Bi2S3/BiOCl, rhodamine B (RhB) was introduced as a model contaminant and 98.0% of RhB could be degraded within 120 min under visible light irradiation (lambda > 400 nm), which was much higher than that of single BiOCl, Bi2S3 and TiO2 (P25). Moreover, a detailed mechanism was also proposed to illustrate enhanced photocatalytic activity. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.