Synthesis of “walnut‐like” BiOCl/Br solid solution photocatalyst by electrostatic self‐assembly method

In this paper, under the control strategy of surface charge of BiOCl photocatalyst and the electrostatic adsorption of anions and cations in potassium bromide (KBr) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), the self-assembly of "walnut-like" BiOCl/Br solid solution nanophotocatalyst at a lower temperature water bath was proposed for the first time. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive system (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), UV-Vis, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and Mott-Schottky curve, transient photocurrent densities, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to analyze the properties of materials, including its morphology, element distribution and chemical states, specific surface area, electrochemical property, and photogenic charge transfer. Based on the degradation performance of RhB dye wastewater and phenol in visible and ultraviolet light, and the band structure of BiOCl/Br solid solution, the reason for the improved photocatalytic activity was deeply discussed, and the possible degradation mechanism was also put forward. The above results show that Br− can be inserted into the crystal lattice of BiOCl under the effect of electrostatic adsorption to form solid solution by the interaction between atomic orbitals, which not only reduces the bandgap width but also improves the separation and mobility of photogenic electrons and holes, causing the absorbed light to shift red to the visible region. In addition, when the nBr−/nCl− = 0.67, "walnut-like" BiOCl/Br solid solution was formed, and this kind of special core-shell structure not only can increase the specific surface area, increase the number of active sites, but also can make the light reflect and refract many times in the cavity and further increase the utilization rate of light energy, and then the best photocatalytic activity was achieved. This study provides an new method to enhance the photocatalytic performance of BiOCl and be conducive to the development of modern material science.