Preparation and Photocatalytic Degradation of Fe-Doped BiOCl Photocatalytic Materials

Fe-doped BiOCl (Fe-BiOCl) hierarchical microspheres were successfully prepared by using a simple one-step solvothermal approach. The Fe-BiOCl hierarchical microspheres were analyzed by XRD, IR, SEM, XPS, TEM, etc. The analyses confirmed that impurity levels were successfully introduced into the band gap of BiOCl through Fe doping, leading to a decrease in the band gap and an expansion of the light absorption range to the visible region. Moreover, the separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers were more effectively promoted by Fe doping, resulting in a substantially elevated photocatalytic performance of BiOCl. After 40 min of dark adsorption and 60 min of photocatalysis, the removal efficiency of the prepared Fe-BiOCl-3 for methylene blue reached 93.5%, and the degradation reaction was accorded with a first-order kinetic law. After 5 cycles of photodegradation, Fe-BiOCl-3 still maintained its high photocatalytic ability, indicating that it had a certain degree of reusability. The active species capture experiment demonstrated that •O2- and •OH played a predominant role during the photocatalytic degradation process. Combined with the active species capture experiment, the photocatalytic degradation mechanism of Fe-BiOCl-3 was put forward.