Hydrothermal synthesis of GO wrapped BiOCl nanosheet and its application in visible light assited catalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye

A two-step synthesis procedure involving chemical treatment followed by hydrothermal technique was applied for the development of a nano-composite (BOC-GO) material based on Bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) and Graphene oxide (GO). BOC-GO was employed as an efficient photocatalyst to degrade organic textile dye Rhodamine B (RhB) up to 99.6% within 60 min. Moreover, the sample retained impressive degradation efficiency even after 3 catalytic cycles, which demonstrated the good reusability property of the catalyst. The appreciable catalytic performance has been associated with the improvement in the separation of charge carriers under visible light irradiation due to the formation of heterojunction between GO & BiOCl. The center dot O-2(-) (superoxide radical) & h(+) (photoinduced hole) highly contribute to the redox reactions. The crystal structures of both samples exhibited a significantly exposed (001) lattice plane along with highly crystalline nature, as evident from PXRD and HRTEM analyses. The composite material showed a higher BET surface area and average pore diameter which in turn facilitated the catalytic activity to a great extent.