A novel BiOCl (110)/rGO/Ag3PO4 (111) heterostructure for efficient detoxification of 2,4-dichlorophenol

An effective method using nontoxic and efficient photocatalysts are crucial for wastewater treatment. Bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) is considered as one of the valuable photocatalysts due to its unique layered plate like structure, however higher recombination and unsatisfied visible light absorption efficiency seriously affecting its applications. Addition of tetrahedral silver phosphate (Ag₃PO₄) which is known for its superior photocatalytic efficiency under visible light is believed to be the solution for the issue. Upon further adding of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) could form a bridging structure and enhance the activity. Considering the merits of these materials the BiOCl (110)/rGO/Ag₃PO₄ (111) heterojunction has been successfully constructed for 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) enhanced detoxification. The efficiency in degradation was found to be 94.8% by BiOCl/rGO/Ag₃PO₄ (k = 0.01879 min^-1) that was greater to that of pure Ag₃PO₄ (∼1.9 times; k = 0.00818 min^-1) and pure BiOCl (∼2.8 times; k = 0.00642 min^-1) after 60 min of visible light irradiation. The mechanism of degradation was explained through the principle of heterojunction energy-band theory. Furthermore, 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) degradation products identification was carried out by ESI/LC-MS to propose the degradation pathway. Furthermore, the phytotoxicity of the intermediate products was investigated by estimating the germination index (GI) values on Phaseolus vulgaris (P. vulgaris) at different time intervals and the GI values were found to be 10.79% and 80.17% before and after degradation respectively. Thus, our results revealed that efficient and significant toxicity reduction was observed in this photodegradation.