Investigation of the photocatalytic performance of Mg-doped modified BiOCl

In this paper, pure BiOCl was prepared using a simple solvothermal method, followed by modification of BiOCl by doping with magnesium and characterisation of the material using SEM, TEM, XRD, EDS and DRS. The characterisation results illustrate that the magnesium was successfully doped in BiOCl and that the doping was relatively homogeneous. The photocatalytic degradation of RhB was carried out under visible light irradiation and the results showed that the photocatalytic performance of the magnesium-doped BiOCl was significantly enhanced, with a degradation rate of 99.3 % after 25 min. The doping of magnesium increased the specific surface area of BiOCl, broadened the photoresponse range and suppressed the photogenerated electron-hole complexation rate.