“Synthesis of Nano composite CeO۲:SiO۲: Highly efficient photocatalysts for degradation of Industrial waste Dyes”

Nanocrystalline UV light induced composite CeO۲:SiO۲ with high surface area and low band gap energy were prepared in order to assess its photocatalytic degradation capacity of target pollutant (mixture of dyes). The complete mineralization of target dye pollutants (۳۰ ppm) occurred within ۱۵۰ min. when CeO۲:SiO۲ catalyst with optimum loading ۰.۴ g was used. Overall, the present system is economical, reproducible and highly efficient. Further the comparative study on photocatalytic efficiency of SiO۲ and CeO۲ was compared with composite CeO۲:SiO۲. The effect of various operational parameters used in degradation like concentration of dye, amount of photocatalyst and various catalyst has been studied on the rate of reaction. The recyclability of the photocatalyst, CeO۲:SiO۲ was performed up to four runs. The photodegradation of waste water pollutants was occurred nearly ۹۶ % using CeO۲:SiO۲ nanoparticles. The removal of waste water pollutants was confirmed by UV spectrophotometer by diminishing the absorbance to zero within ۱۲۰ min using CeO۲:SiO۲ nanoparticles. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by various analytical investigative techniques like UV-DRS, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and BET.

Keywords:

Composite nanoparticles , photocatalyst , Photodegradation , Industrial waste dye