Effect of drying temperatures on structural performance and photocatalytic activity of BiOCl synthesized by a soft chemical method

A group of BiOCl photocatalysts with different drying temperatures were prepared by a soft chemical method. The effects of drying temperatures on the crystalline phase, morphology, surface area and optical property of as-prepared samples were investigated in detail by XRD, SEM, N2 absorption–desorption and DRS. Moreover, their photocatalytic activities on the degradation of rhodamine B were evaluated under visible light irradiation. It was found that the sample dried at 120 °C had the best photocatalytic activity, which was mainly attributed to the highest exposing proportion of {001} facets correspond to BiOCl, largest BET and minimum bandgap. The degradation mechanism was explored that superoxide radicals were mainly contributed to the degradation of chromophore, however, holes and hydroxyl were mainly contributed to the photo degradation. Moreover, holes and hydroxyl dominated the degradation of RhB.