Tailoring of Visible Light Driven Photocatalytic Activities of Flower-Like BiOBr Microparticles Towards Wastewater Purification Application

Photocatalysis acts as an important role in controlling wastewater purification. However, it is still a huge challenge to obtain highly-efficient visible light driven photocatalysts. Herein, flower-like BiOBr microparticles with splendid photocatalytic activities are developed. The electronic structure of BiOBr host is explored via the first-principles density function theory. Besides, the impact of some external factors on the photocatalytic properties of BiOBr compounds is studied. In comparison, the flower-like BiOBr microparticles have the best photocatalytic behaviors and they can degrade RhB within 10 min with a high K value of 0.498. Moreover, via using heat treatment, the light harvest ability and phase structure of flower-like BiOBr microparticles are hardly altered, while their photocatalytic capacity is tailored due to the modified specific surface area and pore volume as well as the diverse charge separation efficiency. Furthermore, through altering the pH value of solvent, the resultant compounds exhibit totally different photocatalytic behaviors, and these products achieved at pH = 7 exhibit the best properties. Additionally, the designed photocatalysts have excellent recyclability and the photocatalytic mechanism is determined by h(+), center dot O-2(-), and center dot OH. These achievements imply that the flower-like BiOBr microparticles are promising candidates for visible light driven photocatalysts to realize wastewater purification.