Issue 21, 2013

Self-doping and surface plasmon modification induced visible light photocatalysis of BiOCl

Abstract

In this study we demonstrate that self-doping and surface plasmon resonance could endow a wide-band-gap ternary semiconductor BiOCl with remarkable visible light driven photocatalytic activity on the degradation of organic pollutants and photocurrent generation properties. The self-doped BiOCl with plasmonic silver modification was synthesized by a facile one-pot nonaqueous approach and systematically characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra, electron spin resonance, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocurrent enhancement was found to be intimately dependent on the irradiation wavelength and matched well with the intensity of the absorption of the Ag nanoparticles. Reactive species trapping experiments and electron spin resonance spectroscopy with 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide spin-trapping adducts confirmed that more oxidative species could be generated from the photogenerated electrons due to the plasmon-excitation of the metallic Ag in the self-doped BiOCl with plasmonic silver modification, which is responsible for the great enhancement of photocatalytic activity and photocurrent. Surface photovoltage spectroscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy results revealed the transfer of plasmon-band-induced electrons from Ag nanoparticles into BiOCl and the acceleration effect of surface plasmon resonance-induced intense oscillating electric fields on this electron transfer. This study would not only provide direct evidence of plasmonic photocatalysis, but also shed light on the design of highly efficient metal–semiconductor composite photocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Self-doping and surface plasmon modification induced visible light photocatalysis of BiOCl

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Jul 2013
Accepted
30 Aug 2013
First published
03 Sep 2013

Nanoscale, 2013,5, 10573-10581

Self-doping and surface plasmon modification induced visible light photocatalysis of BiOCl

J. Jiang, L. Zhang, H. Li, W. He and J. J. Yin, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 10573 DOI: 10.1039/C3NR03597B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements