A series of BiOBr/BiOI photocatalysts supported on fly-ash cenospheres (FACs) were successfully prepared via a facile one-pot alcoholysis method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The results indicate that pH value plays a critica...

HIGHLIGHTS A facial method was used to fabricate BiOI/BiOCl film at room temperature.30% BiOI/BiOCl showed an excellent photocatalytic activity and stability.Improvement of photocatalytic activity was owed to expanded visible light absorption and high separation efficiency of charge. Photocatalysis has been considered to be one of the most promising ways to photodegrade organic pollutants. Here...

Developing efficient visible-light-driven (VLD) photocatalysts for environmental decontamination has drawn significant attention in recent years. Herein, we have reported a novel heterostructure of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) coated with BiOI nanosheets as an efficient VLD photocatalyst, which was prepared via a simple solvothermal method. The morphology and structure were characteriz...

With the increasingly serious environmental problems, photocatalysis has recently attracted a great deal of attention, with particular focus on water and air purification and disinfection. Herein, we show an electroreduction strategy to improve significantly the solar absorption and donor density of BiOI nanosheet photocatalyst by introducing oxygen vacancies. These oxygen-deficient BiOI nanosh...

The three quasi-binary phase systems BiOX–BiOY (X, Y = Cl, Br, I) have been investigated by X-ray powder methods. No quaternary phases were found in the three systems. BiOCl–BiOBr and BiOBr–BiOI form systems of unlimited mutual solubility. BiOCl–BiOI is a system of limited solubility at the iodine-rich side. In the BiOBr–BiOI system a strong deviation from Vegard’s rule is observed with respect...

Dyes are one of the most important existing pollutants in textile industrial wastewater. These compounds are often toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic to living organisms, chemically and photochemically stable, and non-biodegradable. Acid red 18 is one of the azo dyes that are currently used in the textile industries. Photocatalytic degradation offers a great potential as an advanced oxidation p...

Cytochrome P450(BioI) (CYP107H1) from the biotin operon of Bacillus subtilis forms a seven-carbon diacid through a multistep oxidative cleavage of a fatty acid linked to acyl carrier protein (ACP). Crystal structures of P450(BioI) in complex with three different length fatty acyl-ACP (Escherichia coli) ligands show that P450(BioI) binds the fatty acid such as to force the carbon chain into a U-...

The nanostructured BiOI-Q-Ag composites were prepared by a quercetin-assisted hydrolysis route under varying concentrations of Ag. samples examined microscopic and spectroscopic investigations, which revealed that the Ag nanoparticles (NPs) efficiently loaded on 3D BiOI-Q nanoflowers, higher density was observed with increasing amount photocatalytic activities as-synthesized BiOI-Q, (1), (2), (...

We, for the first time, demonstrate band-gap-broadening as a new approach to remarkably enhance the photocatalytic activity of Br(-) substituted BiOI photocatalysts, which were fabricated via a facile chemical precipitation route. The successful incorporation of Br(-) ions into the crystal lattice of BiOI was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-...

The electronic structures and photocatalytic properties of bismuth oxyhalide bilayers (BiOX1/BiOX2, X1 and X2 are Cl, Br, I) are studied by density functional theory. Briefly, their compositionally tunable bandgaps range from 1.85 to 3.41 eV, suitable for sun-light absorption, and all bilayers have band-alignments good for photocatalytic water-splitting. Among them, heterogeneous BiOBr/BiOI bil...