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Novel p–n junction photocatalyst of BiOCl/(BiO)2CO3 anchored on RGO with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

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Abstract

In this study, a novel p–n junction photocatalyst of BiOCl/(BiO)2CO3 anchored on RGO was synthesized to enhance the visible light photocatalytic activity. The crystal structure and morphology of the prepared samples were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The photodegradation performances of the samples were evaluated by photodegrading methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation. The results showed that nanoparticles of BiOCl/(BiO)2CO3 were well dispersed on the RGO nanosheets which served as the growth support and the morphology controller. The RGO addition could enhance the photocatalytic performance of the BiOCl/(BiO)2CO3-RGO composites with the maximum degradation efficiency of 99.1% under visible light irradiation compared to the sample without RGO (80%). The improved property was attributed to the fact that RGO effectively separated the electron–hole pairs of the composites. Meanwhile, the possible mechanism of the photocatalysis was proposed, which revealed the transfer of charge carriers and the formation of active substances in the photocatalytic process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of: (a) Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS (no. QYZDJ-SSW-JSC015), (b) the program of Liaoning Education Department (no. LG201605), (c) Key Laboratory Open Fund of Shenyang Ligong University (nos. 4801004yb61-d and 4771004kfs49), (d) the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (2020197).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Shenyang Ligong University, No.6 Nanping Central Road, Shenyang, 110159, China

    Y. L. Qin, Y. Q. Wang, P. Y. Zhao & X. Y. Liu

  2. Shi-Changxu Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Y. L. Qin, Y. Q. Wang, P. Y. Zhao, X. Y. Liu, Z. Y. Liu, D. R. Ni, B. L. Xiao & Z. Y. Ma

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  1. Y. L. Qin
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Contributions

YLQ, YQW and PYZ: contributed equally to this work, and they conceived the idea and designed the experiments; ZYL and XYL: performed the experiments of material preparation; YQW: wrote the paper under the supervision of DRN, BLX  and ZYM. All authors participated in the data analysis and discussion.

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Correspondence to X. Y. Liu or Z. Y. Liu.

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Qin, Y.L., Wang, Y.Q., Zhao, P.Y. et al. Novel p–n junction photocatalyst of BiOCl/(BiO)2CO3 anchored on RGO with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity. Appl. Phys. A 126, 851 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-04044-w

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