Glycerol-Assisted Hydrolysis Synthesis of BiOCl and Excellent Visible- Light-Driven Photocatalytic Performance

Abstract Visible-light-driven bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) was successfully synthesized by a facile and environmentally friendly glycerol-assisted hydrolysis method at low temperature. The as-prepared BiOCl was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS) and nitrogen adsorption. It was found that glycerol played a key role in the formation of BiOCl and the possible growth mechanism was also proposed. The characterization results showed that BiOCl had a tetragonal crystal structure, surface area of 35.30 m