Facile co-precipitation thermal degradation synthesis of CeO 2 nanoparticles and their photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B

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.