Three new type of single crystallite PbBiO2X (X = Cl, Br and I) square-like nanoplates with several hundreds nanometers in length are synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method. The band structure and hehavior of charge carriers for the nanoplates are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The halogen elements are closely related to the indirect narrow band gap(2.61 eV, 2.51 eV and 2.38 eV for PbBiO2Cl, PbBiO2Br and PbBiO2I, respectively). The PbBiO2X square-like nanoplates exhibit improved photocatalytic performance on degradation of organic pollutant under visible irradiation, owing to their novel nanostructure and efficient photoelectric conversion. This work demonstrates that PbBiO2X nanoplates can be considered as a promising photocatalyst and offer a better understanding about other halogen group elements related semiconductors. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.