Short Communication Efficient adsorption and photocatalytic pceerformance of flower-like three-dimensional (3D) I-doped BiOClBr photocatalyst Bin Zhang a , Guangbin Ji a, ⁎, Yousong Liu a , M.A. Gondal b , Xiaofeng Chang a a College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, PR China b Laser Research Group, Physics Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia abstract article info Article history: Received 31 December 2012 Received in revised form 25 February 2013 Accepted 25 February 2013 Available online 4 March 2013 Keywords: Bismuth oxyhalide I-doped Adsorption Photocatalytic Uniform well crystallized flower-like three-dimensional (3D) BiOClBr and I-doped BiOClBr microspheres with diameter of 1 μm were synthesized through a simple EG-assisted solvothermal method. The existence of I atoms in the BiOClBr compound could greatly enhance both adsorption and photocatalytic activity as compared with the BiOClBr and BiOX (Cl, Br, I) monomers. The highest catalytic performance of the flower-like 3D I-doped BiOClBr microspheres was preliminary deduced to be due to the much higher specific surface area, efficient sorption capacity as well as the unique interfacial structure. These factors may favor the absorption of light and separation of photogenerated charged carriers more effectively. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction During the past few years, TiO 2 has been applied extensively as a photocatalyst for degradation of dyes due to its high photocatalytic activity, low cost, and nontoxicity [1–3]. However, due to its large band gap (3.0–3.2 eV), TiO 2 can only exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity under ultraviolet light illumination which occupies less than 4% of the solar spectrum. Bismuth oxyhalide compounds have recent- ly been found to possess remarkable photocatalytic activities under UV and visible-light illumination. The band gap of BiOX (Cl, Br, I) has been estimated to be between 3.19–3.44 eV [4–7], 2.64–2.91 eV [8,9] and 1.77–1.92 eV [8,10], respectively. The structural feature of BiOX (Cl, Br, I) comprises a layer of [Bi 2 O 2 ] slabs interleaved by double slabs of halogen atoms. The internal static electric fields between the [Bi 2 O 2 ] 2+ and halogen anionic layers are believed to induce the efficient separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs [11]. Various semicon- ductors related with BiOX (Cl, Br, I) posses own heterojunction structure such as NaBiO 3 /BiOCl [12], BiOCl/Bi 2 O 3 [13], and BiOI/TiO 2 [14]. Further- more, a heterostructure can be formed among different BiOX (Cl, Br, I) monomers such as BiOBr x I 1 - x [15,16] and BiO(Cl x Br 1 - x ) [17,18]. Several preparation methods were usually used to construct the heterojunction and to control the band gaps or band positions including metal and nonmetal doping [19,20], solid solution [21] to improve photo- catalytic activity. The photocatalyst with nanoscale might perform better photocatalytic activity than their bulk counter part due to their larger sur- face area and faster arrival to the reaction sites of the photogenerated electrons and holes [22]. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) microscale architectures fabricated from nanoscaled building blocks have many advantages such as high photocatalytic activity, abundant transport paths for organic molecules, easy separation and excellent recycling properties [23]. In this study, 3D I-doped BiOClBr heterostructures constructed by nanoplates prepared by a simple solvothermal method exhibit excel- lent photocatalytic ability under visible light irradiation and excellent adsorption ability as well. 2. Experimental 2.1. Material preparation and characterization The I-doped BiOClBr powders were prepared using a simple solvothermal method in a glycol (the preparation process in detail has been shown in the supplementary material). The obtained samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, JEOL S4800). The crystal structure and the texture of all the samples were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Bruker D8 ADVANCE) with Cu Kα radiation (λ = 1.5406 Å). X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) analysis was performed on a Thermo ESCALAB 250 spectrometer to study the components and the element valence states of the samples. X-ray fluorescence (ARL Advant'X) was used to analyze the composition of samples. The surface areas and pore size analysis of the samples were Catalysis Communications 36 (2013) 25–30 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 25 52112902; fax: +86 25 52112900. E-mail address: gbji@nuaa.edu.cn (G. Ji). 1566-7367/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catcom.2013.02.021 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Catalysis Communications journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/catcom