Hierarchical BiOCl microspheres with narrow band gap as visible light active photocatalysts

•Hierarchical BiOCl microspheres were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal process.•BiOCl microspheres possess the high photocatalytic activity under visible light.•BiOCl microspheres possessed the very high and stable photocatalytic activity.•The mechanism for photocatalytic degradation by BiOCl microspheres was studied.

In this paper, the hierarchical BiOCl microspheres were successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal process. And the morphology, composition, crystal growth, and energy band-gap of hierarchical BiOCl microspheres were characterized systematically. The hierarchical BiOCl microspheres possess a narrow band gap of 2.25 eV. Besides, their photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation was investigated, and found the microspheres possessed the very high and stable photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the mechanism for photocatalytic degradation of organic molecules by hierarchical BiOCl microspheres was detailed studied.

Graphical abstractThe hierarchical BiOCl microspheres possess the narrow energy band gap of 2.25 eV. And they possessed the very high and stable photocatalytic activity which attributed to the photoelectrons on the surface interacted with the absorbed O2 molecules to generate highly active O2− species.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide