Fabrication of OVs enriched BiOCl microflowers doped with Fe3+ for effective destruction of two typical contaminants.

ABSTRACT

In this study, a one-step solvothermal method was used to fabricate Fe3+ doped BiOCl microflowers with abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) in the presence of glacial acetic acid. Various analytical techniques were employed to characterize the structural, morphological, and optical properties of the prepared samples. The presence of OVs was confirmed by low temperature electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis. The photocatalytic results show that Fe3+ doped BiOCl photocatalysts have higher activity than the bare BiOCl, and 10% Fe3+/BiOCl exhibits the highest photocatalytic performance, the photocatalytic efficiency of this sample is 2.3 and 1.1 times higher than that of the blank BiOCl toward photocatalytic degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and rhodamine B (RhB), respectively. Furthermore, Fe3+ doped BiOCl demonstrates excellent reusability. Based on the experimental observations, an enhancement mechanism for the photocatalytic activity of Fe3+ doped BiOCl was reasonably elucidated.