Photocatalytic behavior of BiOX (X = Cl/Br, Cl/I and Br/I) composites/heterogeneous nanostructures with organic dye

摘要

In this work we report smallest band gap composites BiOCl/Br, BiOCl/I and BiOBr/I with concentration of 50-50% synthesized using wet chemical method. Structural, morphological, compositional, optical and comparative study of photocatalytic properties of BiOCl/Br, BiOCl/I and BiOBr/I are studied. XRD analysis, from the intensity peaks, confirms the presence of both plate and flower like structures in the samples. BET confirms average surface area well in accordance with the XRD analysis. The morphology of the as prepared composites, studied using SEM characterization, is found to be interwoven nano-petals. It appears as 3D hierarchical microspheres with diameter ranging from 2 to 5 µm. Compositional study, using EDAX analysis, confirms the presence of constituents in order of their atomic and weight ration percentage. In FTIR analysis no absorption peaks related to impurity or solvent residue is obtained which is consider as a good agreement with respect to XRD results. Organic dye (methylene blue) reduction of composites sample within 5 h reaction time in the presence of UV-visible light was carried out using UV-visible spectroscopy techniques. The present work provides a simple way to prepare more active photocatalyst composites BiOCl/Br, BiOCl/I and BiOBr/I which finds industrial applications.