Multifunctional Bismuth Oxychloride/Mesoporous Silica Composites for Photocatalysis, Antibacterial Test, and...

The increasing complexity of environmental pollution nowadays poses a severe threat to the public health, which attracts considerable attentions in searching for nanomaterials of multiproperty. In this study, mesoporous silica of KIT-6-encapsulated bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl), an intrinsically multifunctional material exhibiting bunched structure in the composites, are facilely prepared under hydrothermal conditions. Subsequently, the produced materials of multifunctionality were applied for photocatalysis, antibacterial test, and simultaneous determination of heavy metals including lead and cadmium. A combination of physiochemical characterizations have revealed that the BiOCl-KIT-6 composites exhibit enlarged yet refined surface morphology contributing to the improved photocatalytic ability with a band gap of 3.06 eV at a molecular ratio of 8Bi-Si. Moreover, the antibacterial activities of our BiOCl-KIT-6 composites were explored, and possible antimicrobial mechanism related to the production of reactive oxygen species was discussed. Furthermore, a sensitive electrochemical determination of heavy metals of lead and cadmium using square-wave anodic stripping voltammetry was also achieved. The composites-modified glassy carbon electrode displays a linear range of calibration curve from 0.2 to 300 μg/L with a detection limit of 0.05 μg/L (Pb²⁺) and 0.06 μg/L (Cd²⁺), respectively.