Hydrothermal synthesis of Ag-doped BiOI nanostructure used for photocatalysis

Abstract

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. A series of Ag-doped BiOI photocatalysts with different Ag contents was successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method at 120 °C for 24 h. The as-synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activities of the undoped BiOI and Ag-doped BiOI products under UV visible and visible daylight were evaluated through the decolorization of methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue in aqueous solutions. In this research, 1.0 mol% Ag-doped BiOI microflowers revealed the highest decolorization efficiency of 91.26 % to degrade MO under visible daylight within 180 min, controlled by the open surface area of the photocatalyst and illumination intensity.