Facile growth of vertically aligned BiOCl nanosheet arrays on conductive glass substrate with high photocatalytic properties

Abstract

A facile, solvothermal method was developed to grow vertically aligned BiOCl nanosheet arrays on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate. The solvothermal temperature and reaction time dependence for growing the BiOCl nanostructures were examined. The formation mechanism of the BiOCl nanosheet arrays was proposed based on the morphology and structure of the BiOCl nanosheets at different reaction stages. The band gap of the as-prepared BiOCl nanosheet arrays was estimated to be about 3.38 eV. Photocatalytic experiments showed that the BiOCl nanosheet arrays exhibited excellent activity much higher than hydrothermally grown rutile TiO₂ nanorod arrays, which was comparable to P25 TiO₂ film, while retaining much better photocatalytic stability in durability tests. On the basis of the growth characteristics of BiOCl on FTO substrate, the photocatalysis was integrated in a microreactor for performing rapid and continuous degradation of organic compounds.