Highly visible-light-responsive photocatalytic AgCl/BiOCl hetero-nanostructures synthesized by a chemical coprecipitation method.

AgCl/BiOCl heteronanostructures were synthesized by a room-temperature chemical coprecipitation method. The as-obtained products were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-Vis diffuse spectra, which show the structures, morphologies, and optical properties. The results revealed that the absorption edge of AgCl/BiOCl shifted towards visible light regions. Meanwhile, the AgCl/BiOCl heteronanostructures showed better photocatalytic properties than the pure BiOCl to degrade rhodamine B and the 5% AgCl/BiOCl showed the best photocatalytic ability, which completely decomposed the target molecules in 17 minites with the visible-light illumination. The formation of heteronanostructures might improve the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes derived from the coupling effect of BiOCl and AgCl heteroarchitectures, which was regarded as the main reason for the high photocatalytic activity.