In-situ precipitation synthesis of novel BiOCl/Ag2CO3 hybrids with highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity

Novel BiOCl/Ag2CO3 hybrid photocatalysts were facilely fabricated in situ precipitation method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and photoluminescence (PL). The photocatalytic experiments indicated that the as-prepared BiOCl/Ag2CO3 photocatalyst exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity than the pure BiOCl and Ag2CO3 samples toward degrading Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation. Moreover, the photocatalytic mechanism of BiOCl/Ag2CO3 hybrid was also discussed. The remarkably improved photocatalytic performance should be ascribed to the heterostructure between Ag2CO3 and BiOCl, which greatly promoted the photoinduced charge transfer and inhibited the recombination of electrons and holes.