Synthesis of Ca-doped CeO2 Nanoparticles for the Enhanced Adsorption Activity of Chitosan and Other Applications

Abstract

Calcium doped cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by co-precipitation method with ammonium ceric sulfate as the precursor and ethanol as solvent. They were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. Pure CeO2 NPs have a crystallite size of 9 nm, while, calcium-doped ones have 2 nm and are having regular spherical shapes. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface analysis indicated that calcium-doped CeO2 NPs have larger specific surface area (59.806 m2/g) than pure CeO2 NPs (30-40 m2/g). As a result, chitosan incorporated with calcium doped CeO2 NPs showed better adsorption efficiencies (48-70%) than when incorporated with undoped CeO2 NPs (35-51%). Studies suggested that calcium doped CeO2 NPs are better potential photocatalyst for methyl orange degradation, with efficiencies between 25-68 % (in the time interval of 15-75 min) than their pure counterpart (2-15%).