Room-temperature synthesis of BiOBr sub-microflowers and their photocatalytic properties

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2012 Mar;12(3):2008-13. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2012.5162.

Abstract

Flower-like BiOBr sub-microstructures about 500 nm in diameter have been synthesized in the presence of tetraethylammonium bromide (TEAB) via a solution route at room temperature. SEM observation shows that these sub-microflowers are composed of nanoflakes with the thickness of 20 nm. The photocatalytic activities of flower-like BiOBr were evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) and phenol under visible-light and UV-light irradiation, which presented the efficiencies up to 97% within 1.5 h and 45% within 4 h, respectively.