Photocatalytic performance of CeO2 , SnO2 nanoparticles catalysed by Methylene Blue (MB) dye degradation

Abstract

Abstract Cerium oxide (CeO2), Tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticle powders were synthesized by two different methods one is co-precipitation method using the leaf of Artemisia pallens (cerium (III) nitrate ) and another one is sol gel Acrylamide route. The prepared CeO2 powders and SnO2 were characterized by various analysis tools. The powder X-ray diffraction analysis results revealed that the sample powder was crystalline with single phase cubic structure. The broad peaks show the nanosized crystal and also crystallite size increase with temperature due to the agglomeration of individual particles. The variation in particle size, lattice strain, stress and energy density calculated by various method such as Debye’s Scherer, Monshi method and Williamson-Hall method. The line broadening of CeO2 nanoparticles was due to the small crystallite size and lattice strain. This broadening was analyzed by the Scherer formula, modified forms of W-H analysis. This variation in particle size, lattice strain, stress and energy density reveals that non uniform strains in the particles. This non uniform strain was increased when the particle size was increased. CeO2 ultrafine nanopowder with spherical particles and an average size between 4 and 16 nm was discovered using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the High Resolution TEM pattern, the average distance between two consecutive fringes is 0.31 nm. Photocatalytic degradation of MB catalysed by as synthesized CeO2 nanoparticles and Tin oxide nanoparticles. From the observation to measure the pseudo first order rate constant of the MB dye were computed for two different catalyst Nps. The removal efficiency of MB dye using ceria which indicate has higher efficiency (95%) compared to Tin oxide catalysts (93%) within 180 min 19mg/l cerium oxide caused the most deterioration. The obtained results indicate the effect of photogenerated holes in the degradation mechanism of the dye. Cerium oxide material was analyzed using BET surface analysis methodologies while keeping in mind the photocatalytic activity efficiency results. A Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) technique is very important surface analysis technique for the measurement of the specific surface area of materials. From this techniques surface area and pores sizes are directly measured at different temperature. The pores diameter varies from 3 to 9 nm and the average diameter of pores did not exceed 10 nm. As the calcinations temperature increased, the average pore size increased from 3.3 to 9.1 nm.