New Type Photocatalyst PbBiO₂Cl: Materials Design and Experimental Validation

A new kind of nanostructured photocatalyst, PbBiO 2 Cl is synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The proposed formation mechanism of PbBiO 2 Cl is carried out by analyzing the XRD patterns and SEM images of the products prepared under different conditions. The PbBiO 2 Cl nanostructure behaves as a truncated bipyramid, exposed with {002} and {103} facets. Moreover, theoretical calculation and absorption spectrum indicate the PbBiO 2 Cl shows strong absorption in the visible region with a band gap of 2.53 eV. The obtained PbBiO 2 Cl nanostructures exhibit significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity on degradation of methyl orange (MO) and 4-chlorophonel (4-CP). This work may offer a paradigm on designing and synthesizing visible photocatalyst exposed with reactive facets, which can be applied in many fields.