In-situ growth of Ag3VO4 nanoparticles onto BiOCl nanosheet to form a heterojunction photocatalyst with enhanced performance under visible light irradiation

A series of BiOCl-Ag3VO4 heterojunction photocatalysts with high visible light photocatalytic activity were synthesized by a in-situ growth route. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The azo dye reactive brilliant red X-3B was chosen as the target pollutant to investigate the photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared heterojunctions under visible light irradiation. The BiOCl-Ag3VO4 composite photocatalysts exhibited much higher photocatalytic efficiency than pure BiOCl. The photoluminescence spectra and photocurrent results indicated that the enhanced activity was ascribed to the efficient charge separation and transfer between BiOCl-Ag3VO4 heterojunction. Furthermore, it was found that the content of Ag3VO4 affected the photocatalytic activity apparently. The highest activity was obtained with mole ratio of 2% for Ag3VO4 in the present work. Besides, a possible mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activity was proposed for the degradation of dye under visible light. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.