Facile synthesis, structural characterization, photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities of Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles

In the present study, a facile synthesis of pure CeO₂ and various concentrations of Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles, characterization, optical property, photocatalytic activity, bromophenol blue dye degradation, antibacterial and antifungal activities were described. The Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles were Zr_xCe_1-xO₂ (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 wt %). The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction techniques (XRD), high resolution transmission microscope (HRTEM), Ultra-violet spectrophotometer (UV–Vis), photoluminescence (PL) and fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). The XRD reveals the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles with an average size of 10 nm. HRTEM images exhibit the spherical shaped nanoparticles. The PL spectra of the pure CeO₂, 5, 10 and 15 % wt Zr doped CeO₂ show absorption at 383, 410, 419 and 521 nm, respectively. It indicates that the absorption band of Zr doped CeO₂ slightly shifted to higher wavelength due to doping. The increasing the Zr concentration (5%, 10% and 15%), the average crystalline size was slightly decreased. The optical properties (UV–Visible reflectance and Photoluminescence) studies were tested for CeO₂ and Zr doped CeO₂ samples. The optical band gap energy of the pure CeO₂ and three Zr doped nanoparticles was 3.3, 3.36 and 3.4 eV. The FTIR result confirms the chemical bonding of Ce metal stretching with oxygen. The bromophenol blue dye degradation reveals the photocatalytic activity of Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles. The Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles showed moderate antibacterial and antifungal activities. From the outcome of these study, Zr doped CeO₂ nanoparticles could be used a suitable nanomaterials for the degradation of bromophenol blue dyes discarded as pollution.