Herein, we reported an ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of bismuth-modified rectorite with high visible light-induced photocatalytic activity. The as-synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, FESEM, TEM, BET, and UV-vis DRS techniques. Two toxic and nonbiodegradable organic compounds, Rhodamine B (RhB) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP), were chosen as the target pollutants to characterize the adsorption performance and photocatalytic activity. The results showed that the prepared samples possessed strong adsorbility and exhibited high efficient photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. The excellent photocatalytic activity of bismuth-modified rectorite was ascribed to the strong adsorption ability, the interconnected heterojunction of Bi2O3 and Bi5O7NO3, and the produced center dot OH. Finally, the possible mechanism was presented. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.