Fe3O4 nanoparticle anchored BiOCl platelet as a highly efficient and reusable visible light photocatalyst

Appropriate energy gap matching and heterojunction interface construction are important means to broaden the range of photoresponse and improve the photocatalytic activity. Here, we prepared Fe3O4/BiOCl by a simple hydrothermal method combining with hydrolysis precipitation process. The material exhibits a dot-to-sheet anchored heterojunction structure and a large specific surface area (30.467 m(2)/g), which greatly improves its visible light absorptivity and electron-hole separation. Therefore, it shows excellent photocatalytic properties for organic pollutants in aqueous systems. The photodegradation rate of rhodamine B (RhB) reaches 100% when the exposure time to visible light is 40 min. Fe3O4/BiOCl heterojunction composites not only achieve more than eight RhB degradation cycles easily and efficiently, but also have good reusability under external magnetic field. This work reveals that the magnetism-improved BiOCl-based materials show great potential as reusable photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants.