Bismuth oxychloride clusters prepared by ball-milling technique and their multifunctional application in potassium ion storage and photodegradation

BiOCl is a promising anode material for potassium ion batteries and also one of the potential candidate catalysts for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. Here, a wet ball-milling assisted hydrolysis method is proposed to produce the desired BiOCl. During the hydrolysis process under the ball-milling condition, the obtained BiOCl nanosheets self-assemble into flower-like micro-clusters with a uniform distribution of Bi3+, O2−, Cl− and a low BET specific surface area. Especially, the obtained BOCl clusters demonstrate a superior potassium ion storage performance over most of the reported BiOCl and comparable photocatalytic degradation properties of Rhodamine B. The charge capacity of BiOCl electrodes retained 373 mAhg−1 after 300 cycles at 100 mAg−1 and 232 mAhg−1 after 1000 cycles at 500 mAg−1, respectively. ∼96.7% RhB in the aqueous solution can be degraded after 60 min of light irradiation under a 300 W xenon lamp.