The preparation of BiOCl photocatalyst and its performance of photodegradation on dyes

The photocatalyst BiOCl was prepared by a facile hydrolysis method and employed to study the phase structure, morphology and optical properties via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of BiOCl was tested on the degradation of the selected four kinds of dyes under UV and visible light irradiation. The results showed that four dyes molecules could be efficiently degraded over BiOCl under UV light irradiation. Most of all, rhodamine B was thoroughly degraded after visible light irradiation in 60min and this was ascribed to the dye photosensitization mechanism. The decomposition efficiency of RhB was apparently reduced by adding silver nitrate solution to capture electron of the LUMO orbit. This study demonstrated that electron of the LUMO level of dye molecules played an important role in the dye photosensitization reaction.