BiOCl Nanorings with Co-Exposed (110)/(001) Facets for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dyes
Yin Peng, Nannan Zhao, Jinyun Liu
Abstract
A BiOCl nanoring with co-exposed (110)/(001) facets is presented, which is prepared by selectively etching (001) facets of BiOCl nanosheets based on a selective etching mechanism. The BiOCl nanorings display a high photocatalytic performance toward organic dyes including butyl rhodamine B (RhB) and methyl orange (MO). The results show that 40 mg of BiOCl nanorings can degrade 40 mL of RhB (10 mg L–1) in 4 min. Besides, 40 mL of 30 mg L–1 RhB can be completely degraded within 14 min. The reaction rate constant of 1.659 min–1 for BiOCl nanorings is seven times higher than that of the BiOCl nanosheets. In addition, 40 mg of BiOCl nanorings can degrade 97% of 40 mL (10 mg L–1) MO in 2 min. The good photocatalytic performance is ascribed to the formation of type-II junctions between (001) and (110) facets. It is expected that the specific nanoring structure presented here would find broad applications for developing many other emerging high-performance photocatalysts.