J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56

DOI 10.1007/s11051-017-3764-3

RESEARCH PAPER

Carbon dots/BiOCl films with enhanced visible light

photocatalytic performance
Weitian Lin & Xiang Yu & Yinghua Shen & Hongbin Chen &
Yi Zhu & Yuanming Zhang & Hui Meng

Received: 12 October 2016 / Accepted: 24 January 2017

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017

Abstract Novel carbon dots with a diameter of 6 nm
modified BiOCl (CDs/BiOCl) photocatalyst on FTO
was synthesized via a facile immobilization method at
room temperature. The crystalline structures, morphol-
ogies, optical properties, and photocatalytic properties
were studied. The results showed that the CDs/BiOCl
films exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than pure
BiOCl. The 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl film showed the best
photocatalytic activity, which was about eight times than
that of pure BiOCl and excellent recyclability even after
four recycles. Compared with other film photocatalysts,
the photocatalytic activity of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl was
also higher than that of many other photocatalysts. The
enhanced activity was ascribed to the enhanced light
adsorption and the improvement of charge separation.
Holes and superoxide radicals ·O2− were revealed as the
Weitian Lin and Xiang Yu are contributed equally to this work.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (doi:10.1007/s11051-017-3764-3) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
W. Lin : X. Yu : Y. Shen : H. Chen : Y. Zhu (*) : Y. Zhang
Department of Chemistry, Jinan University,
Guangzhou 510632, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: tzhury@jnu.edu.cn
X. Yu Analytical & Testing Center, Jinan University,
Guangzhou 510632, People’s Republic of China
H. Meng Siyuan laboratory, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of
Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials,
Department of Physics, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632,
People’s Republic of China
dominant reactive species. The photocatalytic mecha-
nism was proposed based on the results.
Keywords Carbon dots . BiOCl . Film . Visible light .
Photocatalytic activity . Nanocomposites
Introduction
Photocatalysis is of great significance in curing environ-
mental and energy problems due to its promising appli-
cations in water purification (Chan et al. 2011), solar
energy storage (Ran et al. 2014), and hydrogen genera-
tion from water (Maeda et al. 2006). As the widely
investigated photocatalyst, bismuth oxychloxide
(BiOCl) has drawn considerable research interest, which
exhibits relatively good photocatalytic activity due to its
unique layered structure and suitable band gaps (Cheng
et al. 2014; Li et al. 2014; Shenawi-Khalil et al. 2012;
Xiong et al. 2014). Nevertheless, the practical applica-
tions of such a material have been limited by high
recombination of the photo-generated electron–hole
pairs. And it is necessary to facilitate the separation of
electron–hole pairs to further enhance its photocatalytic
activity. Various strategies have been employed to im-
prove the photocatalytic activity, such as crystal facet
exposure (Jiang et al. 2012), morphology control (Xiong
et al. 2011), noble metal doping (Lin et al. 2014) and so
on. Among them, coupling other materials with BiOCl
to form nanocomposites is an effective means. Lee et al.
reported that novel BiOCl/Bi2O3 photocatalyst demon-
strated notably high photocatalytic activity over a wide
56 Page 2 of 11
composition range in decomposing 2-propanol in gas
phase and terephthalic acid in aqueous solution, whereas
the individual BiOCl and Bi2O3 showed a negligible
efficiency (Chai et al. 2009). Nan et al. synthesized 3D
BiOI/BiOCl composite microspheres, which demon-
strated enhanced photocatalytic activities in the
bisphenol-A degradation under visible light irradiation.
The superior photocatalytic activity of this composite
catalyst is attributed to the suitable band gap energies
and the low recombination rate of the photo-generated
electron–hole pairs due to the presence of BiOI/BiOCl
heterostructures (Xiao et al. 2012).
Carbon quantum dots (CDs) are fascinating carbon
materials which have attracted massive research inter-
ests, because they display abundant charming character-
istics, such as stability, high aqueous solubility, low
toxicity, uniform distribution, excellent charge transport
properties, easy functionalization, and so on (Lim et al.
2015; Zheng et al. 2015). Very recently, many studies
for synthesis of CDs/semiconductor composites and
their enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity have
been reported (Deng et al. 2016; Di et al. 2015a; Xia
et al. 2016). For example, Yu and his co-workers syn-
thesized carbon self-doped TiO2 sheets for enhanced
visible light photocatalytic activity (Yu et al. 2011).
Zhang et al. utilized Fe2O3/CDs nanocomposites to
investigate the effective photocatalitic activity toward
the degradation of gas phase benzene and methanol
under visible light irradiation (Zhang et al. 2011). Tang
and his partners prepared CDs/m-BiVO4 nanospheres
with various exposed facets and observed enhanced
photocatalytic activities in degradation of MB under
the irradiation of visible light (Tang et al. 2013). In order
to combine remarkable properties of CDs and BiOCl,
CDs can be coupled with BiOCl to form nanocomposite
with higher photocatalytic performance. However, there
have been only few reports on the preparation and
investigation of CDs/BiOCl nanocomposites to date.
Li et al. synthesized a novel CDs modified BiOCl ultra-
thin nanosheet photocatalyst via a facile solvothermal
method. The 5 wt% CDs/BiOCl materials displayed the
best performance, which showed a broad spectrum of
photocatalytic degradation activity (Di et al. 2015a).
Deng et al. reported two-dimensional interlaced
BiOCl/carbon quantum dot composites by a template-
free coprecipitation method at room temperature, which
exhibited 100% 2-nitrophenol removal under visible
light irradiation (Deng et al. 2016). Xia et al. prepared
controlled synthesis of CDs/BiOX (X = Br, Cl) hybrid
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
nanosheets with tunable CDs loading contents. Three
weight percent CDs/BiOBr nanosheets showed the
highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of
RhB, CIP, and BPA under visible light irradiation (Xia
et al. 2016). But all the literatures focused on the CDs/
BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I) nanocomposite powders, which
limited the practical application because of the disad-
vantages such as separating and recycling photocatalyst
powders. Immobilization of photocatalyst powders is
the most effective approach to solve this problem (Mu
et al. 2012). However, no CDs/BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I)
films are reported, which are more beneficial to
recycling and regeneration. Additionally, the photocat-
alytic mechanism of CDs/BiOX composites is not de-
termined, more similar composites are necessary to
further confirm the photocatalytic mechanism.
Herein, we synthesized CDs/BiOCl films on FTO by
a simple and facile immobilization method at room
temperature. The structures, morphologies, optical prop-
erties, and photocatalytic properties were studied. The
as-prepared CDs/BiOCl films showed high visible light
photocatalytic activity toward degradation of RhB and
excellent recyclability. Accordingly, a reasonable pho-
tocatalytic mechanism was also proposed.
Experimental
Sample preparation
All the reagents were of analytical grade and were used
without further purification. CDs were synthesized ac-
cording to the literature followed by a one-step electro-
chemical method (Ming et al. 2012). The CDs/BiOCl
was synthesized as follows: 1.5 g BiCl3 was dissolved in
50 mL ethanol containing 0.25 mL HCl and treated with
ultrasonication for 30 min to form a clean solution. After
that, different amounts of CDs were added into the
s o l u t i o n a n d th e m i x t u r e w a s t r e a t e d w i t h
ultrasonication at room temperature. Prior to the exper-
iment, FTO substrate was ultrasonically cleaned in ace-
tone, ethanol, and distilled water. A certain amount of
the suspension was sucked by a pipette, smeared homo-
geneously on FTO, and dried at 80 °C for 30 min. Then,
the treated FTO was soaked in distilled water and dried
in an oven at 60 °C (Scheme 1). The added contents of
CDs in the CDs/BiOCl materials were 0.8, 2, 4, 5, and
7 wt%, respectively. For comparison, BiOCl without the
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
Scheme 1 Schematic procedure
for fabricating CDs/BiOCl film
modification of CDs was prepared under similar
conditions.
Characterization
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed on an X-
ray diffractometer (XD-2) with 0.154 nm Cu Kα radia-
tion as light source. The morphology of the as-prepared
samples was analyzed by field emission scanning elec-
tron microscopy (FE-SEM, Zeiss ULTRA 55) and trans-
mission electron microscopy (TEM, JEOL 2010F).
Compositions and chemical state of the samples were
characterized by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS,
Bruker/Quanta 200) and X-ray photoelectron spectros-
copy (XPS, ESCALab250). The photoelectrochemical
experiment was performed on an electrochemical sys-
tem (CS 310). The optical properties of the products
were investigated with a UV-Vis diffuse reflectance
spectrum (DRS, Hitachi UV-3010) by using BaSO4 as
a reference. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the
samples were recorded using a RF-5301PC fluores-
cence spectrophotometer.
Photocatalytic activity tests
The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evalu-
ated by monitoring the degradation of RhB under visible
light irradiation of a 350-W Xe lamp with a cut-off filter
(λ > 420 nm). All experiments were carried out at room
temperature. In each experiment, FTO substrate covered
with sample was soaked in a beaker with 100 mL of
RhB aqueous solution with a concentration of 2.5 mg/L.
Prior to irradiation, the system was magnetically stirred
in dark for 30 min to ensure the establishment of
adsorption-desorption equilibrium. At certain intervals,
a quantitative solution was collected and centrifuged.
The solution was examined by UV-vis spectrophotom-
eter. The active species in the photocatalytic system
Page 3 of 11 56
were detected by trapping with isopropanol (IPA),
triethanolamine (TEOA), and benzoquinone (BQ).
Photoelectrochemical measurements
The photoelectrochemical and electrochemical imped-
ance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were conducted
by using an electrochemical analyzer (SP-150, France)
with a standard three-electrode configuration. The Pt
wire was used as counter electrode, the saturated Ag/
AgCl electrode as the reference electrode and the as-
prepared samples as the working electrode. A 350-W Xe
lamp equipped with an ultraviolet cut-off filter
(λ > 420 nm) was utilized as the visible light source.
And a 0.1 M Na2SO4 aqueous solution was used as the
electrolyte.
Results and discussion
Structure, morphology, and chemical composition
characterization
Figure 1 displayed the XRD patterns of the as-
synthesized pure BiOCl and CDs/BiOCl with different
CDs contents. The diffraction peaks centering at 12.0°,
24.1°, 25.9°, 32.5°, 33.4°, 36.5°, 40.9°, and 49.7° can be
attributed to the diffractions of (001), (002), (101),
(110), (102), (003), (112) and (113) crystal facets of
tetragonal phase BiOCl crystals (JCPDS no.06-0249).
No extra characteristic peaks were detected, indicating
that there were no impurities in the products. However,
no diffraction peaks of CDs were observed in the CDs/
BiOCl sample, which may due to the low CDs content
in the samples (Zhang et al. 2012). The peak intensity of
the (001) plane is relatively stronger than those of other
planes, which probably resulted from the preferential
growth orientation of the nanosheets (Ye et al. 2011).
56 Page 4 of 11
Fig. 1 XRD patterns of pure BiOCl and CDs/BiOCl with differ-
ent CDs contents
The morphology and microstructure of the as-
prepared 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl film was investigated by
SEM and TEM. As shown in Fig. 2a, the as-prepared
4 wt% CDs/BiOCl had nanosheet-like morphology, and
the size of the nanosheets was about 400–600 nm.
Fig. 2 a FE-SEM images of the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl. b TEM images of BiOCl. c TEM images of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl. d, e HRTEM images of
BiOCl and CDs. f EDS of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
However, the CDs could not be observed clearly from
the SEM images. Figure 2b showed a low magnification
TEM image of pure BiOCl. Compared with pure BiOCl,
large quantity of nanodots with size of about 6 nm could
be observed (Fig. 2c) on the surface of the nanosheets,
indicating the successful decoration of BiOCl by CDs
Fig. 2d, e showed the HRTEM images of BiOCl and
CDs, respectively, which were collected from the red-
marked areas in Fig. 2c. The lattice spacing of 0.24 and
0.32 nm corresponded to (003) planes of BiOCl and
(002) planes of CDs, respectively. The EDS pattern
(Fig. 2f) indicated that the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl sample
contained Bi, O, Cl, and C elements, evidencing that the
sample was CDs/BiOCl composite.
XPS was employed to study the components and
surface properties of the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl films. In
the XPS spectrum of Bi 4f in Fig. 3a, two strong peaks at
159.2 and 164.6 eV were assigned to Bi 4f7/2 and Bi
4f5/2, respectively, corresponding to Bi3+ in the crystal
structure (Peng et al. 2013). The Bi 4f peaks in the
4 wt% CDs/BiOCl sample displayed a slight shift to-
ward higher binding energies compared with pure
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
BiOCl, which might be attributed to the interaction
between BiOCl and CDs. On the other hand, for the
spectrum of Cl 2p, shown in Fig. 3b, the peaks with
binding energies at 198.1 and 198.5 eV were ascribed to
Cl 2p3/2 and Cl 2p1/2, respectively, which was a charac-
teristic of Cl− in the materials (Cheng et al. 2013). The
O1s peak at 530.6 eV (Fig. 3c) could be ascribed to the
oxygen in the BiOCl. In Fig. 3d, the peak at 284.7 eV
was attributed to C–C bond with sp2 orbital. The bind-
ing energies of 286.1 and 287.3 eV were assigned to the
C–O and C = O, respectively, suggesting the existence
of CDs in the CDs/BiOCl films (Yu et al. 2014). The
results of XPS analysis indicated the coexistence of
BiOCl and CDs in the CDs/BiOCl composite.
Optical absorption properties
The optical properties of pure BiOCl and CDs/BiOCl
with different CDs contents were studied by UV-vis
diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and the results were
displayed in Fig. 4a. The pure BiOCl sample did not
Fig. 3 XPS spectra of samples BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl. a Bi 4f. b Cl 2p. c O1s. d C 1 s
Page 5 of 11 56
absorb in the visible light region, with the absorption
edge of approximately 370 nm. Compared with the pure
BiOCl, all of the CDs/BiOCl samples exhibited absorp-
tion in the visible light region due to the presence of
CDs in the composites. Moreover, the absorption inten-
sity of the CDs/BiOCl samples was improved with the
increase of CDs quantity. This result suggested that CDs
played an important role in utilizing sunlight and in-
creasing the formation of electron–hole pairs during
light irradiation (Zhang et al. 2008), thus resulting in
higher photocatalytic reactivity. The band gap energy
(Eg) of the as-prepared samples was calculated
according to the following formula (Shang et al.
2009):αhv = A(hv ‐ Eg)n/2, where α, h, v, and Eg are the
absorption coefficient, Plank constant, light frequency,
and band gap energy, respectively, while A is a constant.
Among them, n depends on the characteristics of the
optical transition of a semiconductor (n = 1 for a direct
transition and n = 4 for an indirect transition). For
BiOCl, the value of n was 4 for the indirect transition
(Li et al. 2015). The Eg of pure BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/
56 Page 6 of 11
BiOCl could be estimated from the plot of (αhv)1/2
versus (hv). The intercept of the tangent to the x axis
would give a good approximation of the band gap
energy for the samples. As was shown in Fig. 4b, the
Eg of pure BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl were estimat-
ed to be 3.2 and 2.9 eV, respectively. Obviously, the
estimated band gap of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl films was
smaller than that of the BiOCl sample, illustrating that
the introduction of CDs in BiOCl could improve the
optical absorption property of BiOCl.
Photocatalytic properties
The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared samples
were evaluated by monitoring the degradation of RhB
under visible light irradiation with the sample as
photocatalyst. As was shown in Fig. 5a, the degrees of
RhB photodegradation by CDs/BiOCl were all higher
than that of pure BiOCl. The optimum content of CDs
was located at 4 wt%; the best photocatalytic activity of
CDs/BiOCl was obtained. The 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl could
degrade 99% of RhB in 3 h under visible light irradia-
tion. The degradation rate constants in decomposing
RhB with photocatalytic samples were calculated to be
0.23, 0.32, 0.52, 1.76, 0.57, and 0.69 h−1 for pure
BiOCl, 0.8, 2, 4, 5, and 7 wt% CDs/BiOCl, respectively.
The results implied that k values for all CDs/BiOCl
samples were higher than that for pure BiOCl. The
constant of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl was about eight times
that of pure BiOCl. However, a further increase of CDs
content caused a decrease in the photocatalytic activity
of RhB degradation. Because too many CDs dispersed
on the BiOCl might shield the BiOCl from absorbing
visible light (Di et al. 2015c, 2016). This indicated that
Fig. 4 a UV-vis diffuse reflectance of the as-prepared samples. b The band gap energies (Eg) of the pure BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
proper content of the CDs was beneficial for improving
the photocatalytic performance.
Figure 5b showed the time-dependent absorption spec-
tra of RhB solution in the presence of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl.
The absorption peak at 553 nm decreased gradually as the
irradiation time increased. The color of RhB (inset) solu-
tion changed from red to light yellow and then faded
completely during the reaction. This indicated that the
4 wt% CDs/BiOCl exhibited excellent photocatalytic ac-
tivity on the degradation of RhB. And TOC analysis
showed that 95% of dye was mineralized (Fig. S1).
The stability and reusability of the photocatalyst are
vital to the practical applications. The results for the
recycling performance of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl were
shown in Fig. 5c. After 4 cycles, there was no obvious
decrease of photocatalytic efficiency over RhB under
visible light irradiation. In addition, the present
photocatalyst could be directly separated from the aque-
ous system because of its immobilization. The above
results indicated that the photocatalyst had high stability
and could act as effective photocatalyst.
The photocatalytic activity of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl was
compared with other film photocatalysts in Table 1. The
photocatalytic activity of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl film in this
work was higher than that of many other photocatalysts
indicating its great potential for practical applications in
the removal of dyes.
Possible photocatalytic mechanism of CDs/BiOCl
PL emission spectra have been widely used to study the
efficiency of photocatalyst in the photo-generated
charge carrier trapping, migration, and transfer. It is well
known that a lower PL intensity may indicate a lower
recombination rate of electron–hole pairs under
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56 Page 7 of 11 56

Fig. 5 a Comparison of photocatalytic activities of the as- RhB aqueous solution with the presence of the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl
prepared samples on the degradation of RhB under visible light film. c Recycling tests of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl film for the degrada-
irradiation (λ > 420 nm). b Variation of the absorption spectra of tion of RhB under visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm)

irradiation (Xu et al. 2013a). As was shown in Fig. 6a,
the PL spectrum of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl composite was
similar to that of pure BiOCl catalyst, but the emission
intensity decreased significantly, which implies that the
recombination rate of photo-generated charge carriers
was lower in 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl and thus improved the
photocatalytic activities.
The photoresponses of BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl
in on-off cycles under visible light irradiation were
investigated and the results are shown in Fig. 6b. As
could be seen, the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl composite pre-
sented higher photocurrent intensity. However, the pho-
tocurrent of pure BiOCl was weaker, which indicated
that the 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl composite could reduce the

Table 1 Photocatalytic activities of various photocatalysts on the degradation of RhB

Photocatalysts Dye concentration (mg/L) Photocatalytic activity Reference

Films
TiO2 10 50% degraded within 5 h (UV light) Wang et al. 2012
BiOCl 1.0 52.5% degraded within 8 h (visible light) Liang et al. 2013
BiOBr 5.0 80% degraded within 8 h (visible light) Cuellar et al. 2015
ZnO:I/TiO2 2.4 97% degraded within 6 h (visible light) Wang et al. 2015
Bi2WO6 5.0 53% degraded within 12 h (visible light) Zhao et al. 2007
Bi2O(OH)2SO4 1.0 92% degraded within 7 h (visible light) Zhang et al. 2015
CDs/BiOCl 2.5 99% degraded within 3 h (visible light) This work
56 Page 8 of 11 J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56

Fig. 6 a PL spectra of pure BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl. b 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl. d The effect of reactive species in the
Transient photocurrent response of pure BiOCl and 4 wt% CDs/ photogradation process of RhB over 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl
BiOCl. c Electrochemical impedance spectra of pure BiOCl and

recombination rate of photo-generated electron–hole

pairs (Di et al. 2015b). Electrochemical impedance
spectroscopy (EIS) was used to investigate the charge
transfer resistance and the separation efficiency of
photo-generated electron–hole pairs. As displayed in
Fig. 6c, the diameter of the Nyquist circle of the
4 wt% CDs/BiOCl was smaller than that of BiOCl. This
indicated that 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl had a lower resistance
than that of pure BiOCl and enhanced the separation
efficiency of photo-induced electrons and holes (Xu
et al. 2013b).
The trapping experiment of active species during the
photocatalytic reaction of 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl was con-
ducted, as shown in Fig. 6d. In a series of experimental
studies, isopropanol (IPA) (Di et al. 2014), benzoqui-
none (BQ) (Chen et al. 2013), and triethanolamine Fig. 7 Schematic illustration of the proposed mechanism for
(TEOA) (Bai et al. 2014) were adopted as the traps photodegradation process of CDs/BiOCl composites under visible
for·OH radicals,·O2− radicals, and h+, respectively. light irradiation
J Nanopart Res (2017) 19:56
When isopropanol was added, the photocatalytic degra-
dation of RhB was not affected obviously, which indi-
cated that the·OH was not the main active species.
However, the photocatalytic degradation of RhB de-
creased obviously with the addition of benzoquinone
or triethanolamine. The above results indicated that ·O2−
radicals and h+ played an important role during the
photocatalytic process.
Based on the above results, we proposed a possible
mechanism for the photocatalytic degradation of RhB
over CDs/BiOCl. BiOCl could not be excited by the
visible light irradiation because the BiOCl was a wide
band gap semiconductor. But the up-converted PL prop-
erty of CDs suggested that CDs can be used as an
efficient energy transfer materials to convert visible
and near-infrared light to shorter wavelengths light
(Fig. S2). resulting in exciting BiOCl. The CDs/BiOCl
samples exhibited absorption in the visible light region
due to the presence of CDs in the composites. This result
suggested that CDs played an important role in utilizing
sunlight and increasing the formation of electron–hole
pairs during light irradiation. When the system was
irradiated by visible light, CDs absorbed long wave-
length light and emitted shorter wavelength light due
to photoluminescence property (Xia et al. 2016),
resulting in that BiOCl was excited to generate elec-
tron–hole pairs. These photo-generated electrons on the
CB of BiOCl tended to transfer to CDs due to the
conjugated system of CDs (Zheng et al. 2015), which
acted as electron acceptors, thus resulting in effective
inhibition of electron–hole recombination. Then, the
electron on the CDs reacted with O2 to generate·O2−
and the holes on the valence band of BiOCl degraded
the pollutant effectively. The reaction mechanism of
improved photoactivity of the CDs/BiOCl composites
was shown in Fig. 7.
Conclusion
In summary, CDs/BiOCl composite photocatalyst on
FTO was successfully synthesized. The as-prepared
CDs/BiOCl films especially 4 wt% CDs/BiOCl exhib-
ited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity com-
pared with the pure BiOCl and demonstrated excellent
recyclability under visible light irradiation. The en-
hancement of visible light photocatalytic reactivity
should be attributed to the enhanced light adsorption
and the improved separation of photoinduced carriers
Page 9 of 11 56
between BiOCl and CDs. The photocatalytic mecha-
nism was revealed as that·O2− generated by the reaction
between O2 and photo-generated electron which firstly
transferred to CDs then to the surface of BiOCl, and
photo-generated holes degraded the pollutant. In addi-
tion, immobilization of CDs/BiOCl on FTO made their
recycle much easier and realizable. This research can
provide a new insight into developing new immobilized
composite photocatalysts with high photocatalytic ac-
tivity and excellent recyclability.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no con-
flict of interest.
Funding This work was supported by the National Major Sci-
ence and Techology Program for Water Pollution Control and
Treatment (No. 2013ZX07105-005).
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