Direct hydrolysis preparation of plate-like BiOI and their visible light photocatalytic activity for contaminant removal

Plate-like BiOI with different sizes (S1-S5) were successfully synthesized by direct hydrolysis of solid Bi(NO3)3·5H2O at room temperature. The BiOI sample prepared under the condition of 0.035 mol/L KI solution presented the highest photocatalyitc activity under visible light (λ>400 nm), corresponding to the 92.6% degradation efficiency of MO. It provides an efficient way to prepare semiconductor photocatalysts to eliminate environmental pollutants.