Novel BiOCl micro-flower was synthesized by a facile method and used as a precursor to produce Bi2S3/BiOCl composites. The Bi2S3/BiOCl composites, synthesized by in situ etching of BiOCl precursor with thiacetamide (TAA) solution, maintain the hierarchical flower-like structure and exhibit a large surface area. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) were employed to study the structures, morphologies and optical properties of the as-prepared samples. Under visible light (lambda > 400 nm), the flower-like Bi2S3/BiOCl composite displayed much higher photocatalytic activity than single Bi2S3, BiOCl and 2D plate-like Bi2S3/BiOCl composite for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB). The increased photocatalytic activity of Bi2S3/BiOCl could be attributed to the formation of the heterostructure between Bi2S3 and BiOCl and large surface area of the hierarchical structure, which effectively separate the photoinduced electron-hole pairs and suppress their recombination. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.