Facile construction of nickel-doped hierarchical BiOCl architectures for enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic activities

Doping modifications can endow BiOCl with dramatically improved photocatalytic performance via modifying the electronic structure. Here, the hierarchical Ni-doped BiOCl microflowers self-assembled by 2D nanosheets were synthesized through a one-step solvothermal method. Notably, the as-obtained Ni-doped BiOCl sample presented a remarkably enhanced photocatalytic degradation activity, totally decomposed Rhodamine B aqueous solution (15 mg/L) within 5 min under visible-light irradiation. Based on the experimental and calculated results, the introduction of Ni can narrow the band-gap and form defect energy levels simultaneously, resulted in a red shift in the absorption edge and much stronger absorption in the visible-light range. In addition, Ni-doped BiOCl exhibits an enhanced photocurrent density and a suppressed peak intensity of PL emission, indicating the efficient transportation and suppressed recombination of photoinduced charge carriers. This study sheds light on a possible application of Ni-doped BiOCl in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants under visible-light irradiation and provides a feasible strategy to synthesis of high active Ni-doped BiOX (X = Cl, Br and I) photocatalysts.