Crystal plane regulation, defect engineering, and element doping can effectively solve the problems of large band gaps, poor light absorption, and fast recombination of BiOCl. In this work, iodine-doped BiOCl (I/BiOCl) nanowafers with abundant (110) crystal planes and oxygen vacancies (OV) were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method and assessed for pollutant photodegradation. I/BiOCl with a molar ratio of I to Cl of 0.6 (I0.6/BiOCl) degraded under visible light 95.8% of the toxic dye rhodamine B and 85.1% of the persistent antibiotic tetracycline in 5 and 10 min, respectively. In comparison, unmodified BiOCl photodegraded only between 42.0% and 48.2% of these critical water pollutants. Furthermore, I0.6/BiOCl was highly stable with most of its photocatalytic activity remaining after 4 cycles. Three reasons explain the excellent photodegradation properties of I0.6/BiOCl. First, the doped photocatalyst grew abundant (110) crystal planes, which inhibits the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Second, the large quantity of OV present in I0.6/BiOCl increased active sites for reactive oxygen species generation, improved photogenerated charge separation, and pollutants adsorption. Lastly, I0.6/BiOCl had a modified electronic band structure enhancing light absorption. Overall, these results describe a promising photocatalyst capable of degrading efficiently major pollutants with different structures.
Keywords: Antibiotics; BiOCl; Dyes; I-doping; Oxygen vacancies; Photodegradation.
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