Abstract
The uncontrolled dumping of synthetic dyes into water sources has posed severe hazards to the ecosystem. For decades, several materials with low cost and high efficiency have been investigated for dye degradation. Photocatalytic degradation is regarded as a successful strategy since it utilizes sunlight to transform harmful pollutants into nontoxic compounds without using oxidative agents. The photocatalytic potentials of CeO2/g-C3N4 (CG) were investigated in this work using a simplistic ultrasonication process. Here, the amount of CeO2 was fixed, and g-C3N4 was varied in the ratio (1:x, where x = 1, 2, and 3) and abbreviated as CG1, CG2, and CG3. Characterization techniques such as Fourier transforms-infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), powdered X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, etc. were used to characterize structural analysis, optical properties, particle size, and chemical bonds of the prepared nanocomposites. The photocatalytic results showed that CG2 effectively degraded rose bengal (RB) and crystal violet (CV) dyes when exposed to visible light irradiation as compared to pure GCN and CeO2. The antibacterial activity analysis further supported the potential application of prepared photocatalyst as a disinfectant agent against both gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) and gram-negative (Salmonella abony and Escherichia coli) pathogenic strains of bacteria.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Mr. Rajat Arora Surface Lab, Department of Chemistry, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, for the electrochemical analysis. Materials Research Center (MRC), Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, for providing characterization facilities and Micro Engineering and Testing Laboratory, Sonipat, for providing facilities for antibacterial study.
Funding
Anshu Sharma acknowledges the University Grants Commission, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India, for providing Startup grant reference no. 30–545/2021 (BSR).
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Sachin Shoran: Conceptualization; methodology; investigation; roles/writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. Sudesh Choudhary and Anshu Sharma: Supervision; project administration; conceptualization; methodology; roles/writing—original draft; writing—review and editing.
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Shoran, S., Chaudhary, S. & Sharma, A. Photocatalytic dye degradation and antibacterial activities of CeO2/g-C3N4 nanomaterials for environmental applications. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 98682–98700 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23815-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23815-x