Trisodium citrate-assisted synthesis of BiOBr nanostructure catalyst for efficient activity under visible light

A simple one step wet-chemical method assisted by trisodium citrate was employed in the synthesis of BiOBr applied as a photocatalyst. Photocatalytic activity of the BiOBr was investigated for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye under visible light irradiation (lambda>420 nm). The results indicated that trisodium citrate is more favorable to the formation of hierarchical architectures and reduces the particle size of BiOBr photocatalyst. BiOBr with hierarchical architectures exhibiting significantly higher catalytic activity than that with ordinary nanostructure. The significant improvement could be attributed to the high specific surface area (24.14 m(2)center dot(-1)), average pore sizes (34.09 nm) and average pore volume (0.24 cm(3)center dot g(-1)).