Synthesis and Characterization of Cr doped CeO nanoparticles for Rhodamine B dye degradation.

The main aim of this work is to synthesis and study Cr doped CeO nanoparticles for Rhodamine B dye degradation. In this regard, 2 wt% and 4 wt% Cr doped CeO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized through a simple chemical precipitation method. The structural characteristics and elemental composition of the synthesized samples were analyzed using XRD and XPS techniques. The cubic fluorite structure with space group Fm 3m was confirmed through XRD and the presence of Ce, O and Cr atoms in the samples were identified through XPS. Spindle shaped structures were observed from FESEM analysis for 2 % Cr doped sample. Confocal Raman Spectroscopy was used to confirm the CeO stretching vibrational mode at 469 cm. The metal oxygen band was obtained at 447.49 cm from FTIR spectroscopy. The band gap values were calculated from the Tauc plot and the values were found to be 2.0 eV, 2.85 eV and 2.88 eV for CeO, 2 % Cr and 4 % Cr doped samples. The prepared nanoparticles were subjected to photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye at 5 ppm concentration and highest efficiency of 98.3 % was observed by the 4 % Cr doped CeO sample.