Simple and facile ultrasound-assisted fabrication of Bi(2)O2CO(3)/g-C(3)N(4) composites with excellent photoactivity.

BiOCO/g-CN (BOC/CN) composites photocatalyst was fabricated via a facile ultrasonic-assisted method. The crystal structure, morphology, optical and photocatalytic properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized by various analytical techniques. The results indicated that the BiOCO nanoflakes grew on the surface of the g-CN nanosheets, forming closely contacted interfaces between the BiOCO and the g-CN component. BOC/CN composites with 50wt% of g-CN showed the optimal photoactivity for the degradation of RhB under visible light, which was approximately 2.2 times higher than that of pure g-CN and 7 times of pure BiOCO, respectively. The enhanced performance of the BOC/CN composites was mainly attributed to a synergistic effect including the accelerated separation and migration of photogenerated charge carriers, demonstrated by Photoluminescence (PL), electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) and photocurrent density. Finally, a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed based on the experimental results. It is expected that such a facile route method could provide new insights into fabricating other g-CN-based composite photocatalysts for environmental remediation.