Facile Synthesis of BiOCl Nanoflakes with Highly Efficient Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract BiOCl has been identified to be a promising semiconductor material with exceptional performance for photodegradation of organic pollutants. In this work, a feasible strategy to synthesize octagon‐like BiOCl nanoflakes (G‐BiOCl NFs) with novel morphology was developed by one‐step solvothermal reaction in ethylene glycol/water solution with the addition of glutamate acid. The obtained G‐BiOCl NFs with large surface areas and negatively charged surfaces possessed excellent photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic pollutant Rhodamine B (RhB). RhB was almost completely degraded in only 4 mins under ultraviolet−visible light irradiation. It was confirmed that the holes and . O 2 − played crucial roles in the RhB photocatalytic degradation process. This work provided a new strategy for the preparation of efficient photocatalysts.