In situ growth of BiOCl thin film on Bi plate for photocatalytic application

Immobilization of nanophotocatalysts with good activity has been one of the most urgent tasks owing to the high cost and difficulty for post separation of used photocatalytic nanoparticles from the treated effluent. Here we report a facile in situ redox method to prepare a kind of BiOCl thin film on Bi plate in FeCl3 solution at room temperature. The morphology, structure, optical properties and band-gap of as-prepared film was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and DRS. The photocatalytic activity and stability of BiOCl thin film were texted by rhodamine B (RhB) degradation and NO removal under simulated sunlight irradiation. The results indicate that the BiOCl thin film is uniform and compact. The BiOCl thin film shows a superior photocatalytic activity and good chemical stability. In addition, a possible formation mechanism and reaction mechanism has been proposed. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.