Synthesis and characterization of pure and Cu doped CeO2 nanoparticles: photocatalytic and antibacterial activities evaluation

This article reports the effect of pure CeO2 and Cu (1%, 3% and 5 mol %) doped CeO2 Nanoparticles (NPs) have been prepared by very simple and improved co-precipitation method. Synthesized NPs has been subjected to several analytical methods, viz. XRD, TEM and UV-Vis spectral analysis. XRD data analysis confirmed that face cubic structure and average size are found to be in the range 5-10 nm. Particle size and morphological studies as observed from TEM exhibits almost identical cubical shaped particles with average size 58 nm. The tuning of band gap energy has been observed from UV-Visible absorption spectrum of cerium oxide NPs upon Cu (1%, 3%, and 5 mol %) incorporation. Degradation of the methylene blue (MB) through photocatalysis has been observed for pure and Cu (1%, 3% and 5 mol%) CeO2 nanoparticles under solar spectrum. In addition, pure and Cu (1%, 3% and 5 mol %) cerium oxide nanoparticles has also been subjected to antibacterial response using different strains.