High Photocatalytic Performance of Modified Bismuth Oxychloride Semiconductor under Sunlight

Abstract

In recent years, the bismuth compounds have gained much interest due to their potential applications in the field of Photocatalysis. In our present work, Bismuth oxychloride Photocatalyst and Aluminium fluoride doped Bismuth oxychloride photocatalyst were synthesized by simple chemical methods using Bismuth nitrate pentahydrate as the precursor. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by different analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction analyses, Ultra Violet –Diffuse reflectance spectrum, Field Emission – Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray analyses,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies and BET surface area analysis. The photocatalytic performances of the as-synthesized doped and undoped Bismuth oxychloride photocatalyst were tested towards the degradation of Acid green 1 dye. The parameters such as the effect of pH, catalyst concentration and initial dye concentration are optimized, and the kinetic studies are carried out for the photocatalytic dye degradation process. The experimental results showed that about 80% of the Acid green 1 dye got decolourized within 90 minutes by effective air purging under natural sunlight radiation in the presence of the AlF-BiOCl photocatalyst under optimized conditions.