Facile co-precipitation thermal degradation synthesis of CeO2 nanoparticles and their photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 33; no. 8; pp. 5686 - 5695
• Main Authors: Ansari, Mohammad Javed, Machek, Pavel, Jarosova, Marketa, Abed, Azher M., Dehno Khalaji, Aliakbar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-03-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cerium oxides; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coprecipitation; Crystallites; Dyes; Infrared spectroscopy; Materials Science; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Rhodamine; Sorbents; Synthesis; Thermal degradation; Ultraviolet radiation
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-022-07754-4

Ceria (CeO
2
) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by co-precipitation thermal degradation at 500 °C and 600 °C as a facile and low-cost method. The as-prepared CeO
2
nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, UV–Vis, XRD and TEM. XRD patterns confirm a cubic phase of nanomaterials with an average crystallite size of 11.2 nm and 17.1 nm for Ce-1 and Ce-2, respectively. The effect of calcination temperature has been studied on the morphology, properties and photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (Rh-B) under UV light. FT-IR spectra present strong bands assigned to Ce–O–Ce vibration below 550 cm
−1
for both samples. UV–Vis spectra show maximum absorbance at 352 nm with an optical bandgap of ≈ 2.96 and 3.18 eV, respectively. TEM images reveal that the particles Ce-1 and Ce-2 have approximately the average size of 11.2 and 17.1 nm with same shapes. All results confirm the synthesis of pure and single crystalline phase of the CeO
2
nanoparticles. In addition, photocatalytic degradation of Rh-B dye was studied under UV light, and the effects of initial concentration of dyes, sorbent dose and contact time were investigated. Based on performed measurements, we can declare that CeO
2
nanoparticles achieve good efficient photocatalytic performance for Rh-B dye degradation.