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Photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B and phenol over BiFeO3/BiOCl nanocomposite

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Abstract

BiFeO3/BiOCl (BFO/BOC) nanocomposite has been synthesized through a simple chemical etching method using hydrochloric acid. XRD and HRTEM results indicated that part of BiFeO3 transformed to BiOCl, and BiFeO3/BiOCl nanocomposite was successfully prepared. The bandgap values of the prepared BiFeO3 and BiOCl sample are estimated to be 2.23 eV and 3.65 eV using ultraviolet–visible absorption spectra. There are two prominent photo absorption bands for the BFO/BOC heterostructures, which is assigned to the absorption of BiOCl and BiFeO3, respectively. SEM results showed that BFO/BOC sample composes of irregular BiFeO3 nanoparticles and plate-like BiOCl particles. Compared to BiFeO3, the photocatalytic degradation rate of rhodamine B (Rh. B) and phenol over BFO/BOC increase by 32% and 9%. Electron transfer mechanism analysis reveals that indirect dye photosensitization of BiOCl plays the leading role on the enhanced visible light driven photodegradation of Rh. B.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 11747069), Science and Technique Program of Henan Province (no. 182102210375), Foundation of Henan Educational Committee (no. 19A140010) and Doctoral Research Funding of Henan Normal University (no. 5101029170290).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Demonstration Center for Experimental Physics Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Jun Shang, Huige Chen, Tingzhen Chen, Gang Feng, Mengwei Zhu, Yuxuan Yang & Xusheng Jia

  2. Laboratory of Functional Materials, College of Physics and Materials Science, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Jun Shang & Xianwei Wang

  3. Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Jun Shang & Xianwei Wang

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  1. Jun Shang
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  2. Huige Chen
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  3. Tingzhen Chen
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  4. Xianwei Wang
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  5. Gang Feng
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  6. Mengwei Zhu
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  8. Xusheng Jia
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Correspondence to Jun Shang or Xianwei Wang.

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Shang, J., Chen, H., Chen, T. et al. Photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B and phenol over BiFeO3/BiOCl nanocomposite. Appl. Phys. A 125, 133 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-019-2437-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-019-2437-8

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