Oxygen vacancy induced selective silver deposition on the {001} facets of BiOCl single-crystalline nanosheets for enhanced Cr(VI) and sodium pentachlorophenate removal under visible light.

We demonstrate that the high oxygen density characteristic of BiOCl {001} facets ensures the fast generation of oxygen vacancies in ethylene glycol under microwave irradiation, resulting in in situ nucleation and growth of Ag on the {001} facets of BiOCl single-crystalline nanosheets. The resulting Ag selectively deposited BiOCl single-crystalline nanosheets exhibit much higher reactivity and stability on both Cr(VI) reduction and sodium pentachlorophenate oxidation than the randomly deposited counterparts under visible light because of the tight contact between Ag and the {001} facets of BiOCl arisen from oxygen vacancy induced selective silver deposition.