Nanocomposite of CeO
2
and ZnO: An active material for the treatment
of contaminated water
Japinder Kaur
a
, Santosh Bhukal
a
, Kanu Gupta
a
, Mukesh Tripathy
b
, Sandeep Bansal
c
,
Sonal Singhal
a, *
a
Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh,160014, India
b
Icon Analytical Equipment (P) Ltd., New Delhi, India
c
Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India
highlights graphical abstract
CeO
2
/ZnO nanocomposites were
fabricated using hydrothermal
method.
Photocatalytic efficiency of CeO
2
/ZnO
nanocomposites was compared with
their monocomponent counterparts.
Experimental conditions were opti-
mized for the degradation of methy-
lene blue dye.
CeO
2
/ZnO nanocomposite proved to
be a better candidate for the photo-
catalytic degradation of dye.
article info
Article history:
Received 30 January 2016
Received in revised form
30 March 2016
Accepted 18 April 2016
Available online 23 April 2016
Keywords:
Composite materials
Nanostructures
Electron microscopy
Photoluminescence spectroscopy
abstract
A series of catalytically active CeO
2
/ZnO nanocomposites with different molar ratio (CeO
2
: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and
6 mol%) were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The synthesized nanocomposites were
critically investigated using Powder X-ray diffraction technique, Transmission electron microscopy,
Selected area electron diffraction and UVevis diffused reflectance spectra analysis. Powder X-ray
diffraction spectra revealed the presence of diffraction peaks of face-centered cubic phase of CeO
2
and
hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO. Transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed that nano-
composites consist of ZnO nanorods and CeO
2
nanoparticles; where, CeO
2
nanoparticles were clinging on
the surface of ZnO nanorods. UVevis diffused reflectance spectra analysis revealed the good absorption
of all the samples towards UV light. The photocatalytic efficiency of CeO
2
, ZnO and CeO
2
/ZnO was
compared by using methylene blue dye as probe molecule. CeO
2
/ZnO nanocomposites were found to
possess superior photocatalytic activity as compared to their monocomponent counterparts. Further-
more, CeO
2
/ZnO with 5 mol% CeO
2
presented best photocatalytic performance. Additionally, influence of
different process variables on the rate of degradation of methylene blue was investigated using CeO
2
/ZnO
with 5 mol% CeO
2
as catalyst. Maximum degradation of methylene blue was observed in alkaline region
at a catalyst dosage of 1.00 g/L.
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Rising demands of modern society have resulted in manifold
increase in production of dyestuff. However, this increased
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sonal1174@gmail.com, sonal@pu.ac.in (S. Singhal).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Materials Chemistry and Physics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2016.04.063
0254-0584/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Materials Chemistry and Physics 177 (2016) 512e520