Template-free synthesis of nanosliced BiOBr hollow microspheres with high surface area and efficient photocatalytic activity

BiOBr hollow microspheres which were composed of BiOBr nanoslices were synthesized via a simple one-pot solvothermal method at 160 °C for 12 h without the addition of any spherical template. The resulted BiOBr hollow microspheres were regular in shape with external diameter of 1.4 μm in average. As a result, due to the highly hollow architecture, the resulted BiOBr hollow microsphere processed high BET surface area of 76.38 m2 g−1. Besides, a series of time-depended experiments had been listed, showing the morphological evolution for the formation and decomposition of the BiOBr hollow microspherical structure. SDS, which acted as a surfactant, played an important role in controlling the morphology of BiOBr. The obtained BiOBr hollow microspheres exhibited higher photocatalytic activity in the degradation of MB and RhB under visible-light irradiation.