Study on highly efficient BiOCl/ZnO p-n heterojunction: Synthesis, characterization and visible-light-excited photocatalytic activity

A series of BiOCl/ZnO p-n heterojunctions were successfully synthesized by a solvothermal process combined with precipitation method. The structural characterization and optical properties of BiOCl/ZnO heterojunctions were well studied by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, PL, EIS and UV-Vis-DRS. The photocatalytic activities of as-synthesized photocatalysts were evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The obtained BiOCl/ZnO composite heterojunction with the 1:1 M ratio exhibited excellent enhanced photocatalytic performance and showed good photocatalytic stability against RhB. The enhanced photocatalytic activity may attributes to the formation of BiOCl/ZnO p-n heterojunction, which will lead to the development of the bulit-in electric field and be beneficial to the effective separation of photoelectron-holes. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.