Formation of Oxygen Vacancies on the {010} Facets of BiOCl and Visible Light Activity for Degradation of Ciprofloxacin

BiOCl nanosheets with oxygen vacancies on the exposed {010} facets were assistant-synthesized by triethanolamine(TEOA) via hydrothermal method. We explored the surface properties, crystal structure, morphology and optical absorption ability of the prepared samples via various characterization technologies. The results indicate that the morphologies and microstructures of the obtained samples depend on the amount of TEOA in the synthesis. The addition of TEOA induces the production of oxygen vacancy on the surface of the samples. Therefore, the synthesized samples with TEOA-assistance hold higher photoactivity for the degradation of colorless antibiotic agent ciprofloxacin(CIP) under visible light(λ ≥ 420 nm). The obtained sample upon the addition of 20 mL of TEOA exhibits the highest photocatalytic performance, which is nearly 14 times as high as that of the sample prepared without TEOA and twice as high as that of the prepared samples with NaOH or NH₃·H₂O. The possible degradation mechanism was discussed on the basis of the experiment results.