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Updated: Jan 20, 2026

Tuning Oxide Properties by Oxygen Vacancy Control During Growth and Annealing
Published on: June 9, 2023
Br doped porous bismuth oxychloride micro-sheets with rich oxygen vacancies and dominating {0 0 1} facets for
Dapeng Wu1, Rui Wang2, Can Yang3
1Collaborative Innovation Center of Henan Province for Green Manufacturing of Fine Chemicals, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Media and Reactions, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, Henan 453007, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, PR China.
Abstract:
Bismuth oxychloride micro-sheets with rich oxygen vacancies (BiOCl-OV) are firstly prepared through a surfactant assisted solvothermal method. Due to the selective surfactant adsorption, the as-prepared BiOCl-OV exposes high percentage {0 0 1} facets. Moreover, the ion-exchange process not only introduces Br atoms but also creates cavities in crystal structure of the Br doped BiOCl-OV (Br-BiOCl-OV). When used as photocatalyst for N2 photo-fixation, the optimized Br-BiOCl-OV demonstrates an ammonia producing rate of 6.3 μmol h-1 under visible light irradiation, which is greatly enhanced than that of pristine BiOCl-OV (4.1 μmol h-1). The density functional theory (DFT) calculation suggests that because of the introduced Br atoms and the oxygen vacancies, the adsorbed N2 on Br-BiOCl-OV exhibits greater NN bond length than that adsorbed on pristine BiOCl-OV, attributing to the effective activation of the inert NN bonds. Photocurrent response, state/transient PL spectra and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicate that the Br-BiOCl-OV possesses promoted charge separation and suppressed charge recombination, which finally leads to the high N2 photo-fixation performances.
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