Facile Preparation of b-Fe2O3/BiOCl0.875Br0.125 Composites for Enhanced Visible-light Photocatalytic Degradation of Organics from Water

Abstract

Visible light-driven photocatalytic oxidation technology has shown great potential for effective removal of organic pollutants from water and mitigation of energy crises at the same time. The highly effective and economic b-Fe2O3/BiOCl0.875Br0.125 photocatalyst was prepared by a facile hybrid compositing method with b-Fe2O3 and BiOCl0.875Br0.125 to overcome relatively high material cost and limited catalytic efficiency. Characterization techniques, such as XRD, SEM and XPS were used to study the purity and crystallization characteristics of the as-prepared photocatalyst. Furthermore, taking rhodamine b (RhB) as a simulated organic pollutant, the photocatalytic property of b-Fe2O3/BiOCl0.875Br0.125 with different Bi content was further evaluated by static catalytic degradation test under visible-light. The results indicated that the photocatalytic efficiency of the novel composites increases with the improvement of Bi content. Additionally, in comparison to equal mass of pure phase BiOCl0.875Br0.125, when the Bi content reached to 30%, a comparable and even better photocatalysis performance was achieved by the as-prepared b-Fe2O3/BiOCl0.875Br0.125. The hybrid b-Fe2O3/BiOCl0.875Br0.125 has a potential cost advantage in practical water treatment, and provide an attractive method for fabricating efficient visiblelight- driven photocatalysts.