Effect of pH on phase, morphologies, and photocatalytic properties of BiOCl synthesized by hydrothermal method

Abstract

© 2019, Australian Ceramic Society. The effect of pH on preparation of visible light–driven BiOCl photocatalysts under different pH values by hydrothermal method was prepared in this research. The as-prepared visible light–driven BiOCl photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize the phase, atom vibration, morphologies, and chemical composite of as-synthesized BiOCl samples. The XRD patterns of products revealed the presence of pure tetragonal BiOCl phase in the solutions with the pH of 2–10. The morphologies of BiOCl samples at pH 2–10 were observed by SEM, revealing that the precursor solution pH has a large effect on the final morphologies of BiOCl samples after hydrothermal synthesis. Photocatalytic activities of BiOCl photocatalysts were studied by photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. When the precursor solution pH was 8, it was found that BiOCl catalysts exhibited the best photocatalytic activities.