In-situ construction of h-BN/BiOCl heterojunctions with rich oxygen vacancies for rapid photocatalytic removal of typical contaminants

BiOCl -based semiconductors have caused considerable concern in photocatalytic field to solve environmental problems because of their special layered structure. To improve the utilization of sunlight by BiOCl and inhibit the high recombination rate of photo-induced charge pairs, forming of heterojunction is a valuable approach to settle these issues. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a suitable semiconductor that can match the band structure of BiOCl. Therefore, in this demonstration, h-BN/BiOCl heterojunctions were constructed via a solvothermal strategy. Introduction of oxygen vacancies (OVs) in the heterojunctions increases the effective separation of photo-generated charge pairs and reduces the energy required for electrons to reach a new energy level constructed by OVs. The photocatalytic properties of catalysts were investigated by disintegration of rhodamine B (RhB), tetracycline (TC) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) used as simulated pollutants in photocatalytic experiments. The best photocatalytic performance was obtained when the mass ratio of h-BN to BiOCl is 1% and the photocatalysts have fine stability. Combining all the results, photocatalytic enhancement mechanism was reasonably elucidated.