Synthesis of microspherical structures of bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) towards the degradation of reactive orange 84 dye with sunlight

Abstract Hierarchical microspherical-like BiOCl structure was synthesized by solvothermal method. The BiOCl was characterized by different techniques, such as: X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL); as well, the pore distribution and the surface area were determined by BET method. It was found that the conditions of synthesis employed in this work allow to obtain of microspherical-like BiOCl structure with abundant oxygen vacancies. The vacancies of the oxygen promote the photoactivity of BiOCl under sunlight. Also, the photocatalytic mechanism under sunlight was studied by trapping experiments of reactive species, where it was showed that the holes (h+) and superoxide (O2•-) are the main active species in the degradation of RO84 and ACT. As a result, microspherical-like BiOCl structure, is an exceptional photocatalyst in degradation of the RO84 and ACT under sunlight.