LAUSR

Abstract A series of BiOCl samples were synthesized in the vapor environment of isopropanol and deionized water with different volume ratios. It was observed that the crystal lattice, nucleation and growth, morphology, specific surface area, elemental chemical states, valence band density of states, optical properties and photocatalytic performance of BiOCl can be easily tuned by the component and volume of the vapor. The degradation rate of RhB upon BiOCl changes in the broad range of 5.7 × 10−2 min−1–18.2 × 10−2 min−1. The photoluminescence intensity is approximately proportional to the total defect concentration of Bi+3−x, Bi+3+x, –OH and Ov, indicating that these defects act as the recombination centers, detrimental to the photocatalytic performance. Therefore, the decrease in the defect concentration enables to improve the photocatalytic performance. Furthermore, the degradation rate of RhB by BiOCl is almost proportional to the ratio of exposed (001) face. This work reports a simple, effective and low-cost method to synthesize the catalyst with high performance.