LAUSR

Abstract 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 ZrxCe1-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.