“Synthesis of Nano composite CeO2:SiO2: Highly efficient photocatalysts for degradation of Industrial waste Dyes”

Nanocrystalline UV light induced composite CeO2:SiO2 with high surface area and low band gap energy were prepared in order to assess its photocatalytic degradation capacity of target pollutant (mixture of dyes). The complete mineralization of target dye pollutants (30 ppm) occurred within 150 min. when CeO2:SiO2 catalyst with optimum loading 0.4 g was used. Overall, the present system is economical, reproducible and highly efficient. Further the comparative study on photocatalytic efficiency of SiO2 and CeO2 was compared with composite CeO2:SiO2. The effect of various operational parameters used in degradation like concentration of dye, amount of photocatalyst and various catalyst has been studied on the rate of reaction. The recyclability of the photocatalyst, CeO2:SiO2 was performed up to four runs. The photodegradation of waste water pollutants was occurred nearly 96 % using CeO2:SiO2 nanoparticles. The removal of waste water pollutants was confirmed by UV spectrophotometer by diminishing the absorbance to zero within 120 min using CeO2:SiO2 nanoparticles. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by various analytical investigative techniques like UV-DRS, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and BET.