Preparation and photocatalytic property of onion-like carbon/Bi12O17Cl2 photocatalyst

A novel onion-like carbon/Bi12O17Cl2 (OC/Bi12O17Cl2) photocatalysts were prepared via chemical deposition strategy. The surface composition, feature, and optical absorbed capacity of OC/Bi12O17Cl2 materials were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and UV–vis diffuse reflection spectra (UV–vis DRS). It can be found from the characterization and experiment results, OC nanoparticles loaded on the Bi12O17Cl2 surface, forming the heterojunction structure, which increased the separation of photogenerated carriers, exhibiting enhanced optical absorbed capacity. Meanwhile, the band gaps of OC/Bi12O17Cl2 materials decreased in comparison to Bi12O17Cl2 (2.24 vs 2.65 eV). Moreover, in the photocatalytic degradation test of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye, OC/Bi12O17Cl2 samples showed better degradation effect than bare Bi12O17Cl2. The composite material with onion-like carbon loading mass of 3 mg exhibited the best photocatalytic activity and stability in the range of seven cycles. The trapping agent experiments showed that •O2− and h+ were the major active species. Finally, the reasonable mechanism of reaction was speculated.