AgCl and BiOCl composited with NiFe-LDH for enhanced photo-degradation of Rhodamine B

Ni3Fe(OH)(8)0.5CO(3)center dot xH(2)O layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) was used as a precursor to synthesize AgCl-BiOCl-NiFe-LDH composites to extend the light absorption of BiOCl in the visible light region. The synthetic AgCl-BiOCl-NiFe-LDH composites were characterized by XRD, FT-IR and UV-vis Diffuse Reflectance spectroscopy and FE-SEM. The photo-catalytic activity of AgCl-BiOCl-NiFe-LDH composites was evaluated for the decolorization of RhB under the visible light irradiation, which showed that 97.8% of the dye was degraded in 60 min. The photo-catalytic degradation of RhB by AgCl-BiOCl-NiFe-LDH was compared with those by BiOCI-NiFe-LDH and pure BiOCl but the latter two showed lower degradation than the former, which showed the highest activity among the investigated composites. Recycling experiments revealed that AgCl-BiOCl-NiFe-LDH kept very high activity after 4 cycles with an efficiency of 88.6%, which makes it a good candidate for visible-light responsive photo-catalyst with long-term usability. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.