Hollow flower-like BiOI photocatalyst (h-BiOI) was obtained via a facile solvothermal method, which consists of ultrathin nanosheets with a thickness of about 2 nm. The structures and morphologies of as prepared products were characterized by XRD and SEM and the absorption properties were determined by DRS. h-BiOI exhibit a more positive VB band than that of bulk BiOI (b-BiOI), which suggests a much stronger oxidation ability of the former. Therefore, h-BiOI displays completely degradation ability towards RhB under visible light irradiation while b-BiOI only decomposes RhB into segmental fragments under the same conditions. In addition, h-BiOI exhibits significantly higher antibacterial performances than b-BiOI under LED (470 nm) light irradiation. Besides the higher oxidation ability, the excellent photocatalytic activity of h-BiOI may be due to the ultrathin nanosheet, which takes less time for the photogenerated electrons and holes to reach the surface and therefore reduce their recombination. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.