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 5-10nm. Particle size and morphological studies as observed from TEM exhibits almost identical cubical shaped particles with average size 5-8nm. The tuning of band gap energy has been observed from UV-Visible absorption spectrum of cerium oxide NPs upon Cu (1%, 3%, and 5mol %) 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.