Rapid room-temperature synthesis and visible-light photocatalytic properties of BiOI nanoflowers

Uniform hierarchical BiOI nanoflowers composed of nanoplates with rough surfaces have been synthesized by a mild and rapid room-temperature solution synthesis approach. The effects of reaction parameters on the formation of 3D flower-like nanostructure were discussed. The morphology variations of the nanostructures were achieved by simply varying the reaction parameters in the system. The photocatalytic properties of the obtained samples for photodegradation of RhB dye under visible light irradiation were investigated, indicating that the flowerlike BiOI hierarchical nanostructure exhibits much higher photocatalytic activity than the sphere-like BiOI nanostructures owing to the larger surface areas, higher light absorption, and better photo-induced charge separation.