Microwave-solvothermal synthesis of nanostructured biobr with excellent visible-light photocatalytic properties

Abstract

Novel BiOBr hierarchical microspheres have been successfully prepared via a facile microwave-assisted solvothermal route and used for visible-light photocatalytic degradation of RhB. The phase and morphology of the products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The SEM observations displayed that BiOBr flower-like nanostructure assembled from nanosheets. The BiOBr flower-like nanostructure, with a narrow band gap (2.63 eV), shows excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of RhB dye under visible-light, much higher than those of BiOBr nanosheet and P25 photocatalysts.