Preparation of ceric oxide and cobalt sulfide-ceric oxide/cellulose-chitosan nanocomposites as a novel catalyst for efficient photocatalysis and antimicrobial study

Abstract

In this project, we have prepared a nanostructure of CeO₂ nanorods, CoS₂-CeO_2, and CoS₂-CeO₂/cellulose-chitosan (CSCS) nanocomposites by ultrasonic method. This nanostructure was characterized using XRD, DLS, field emission scanning microscopy/EDS, DLS, UV-vis DRS, and PL spectrophotometer for determination of crystalline status, morphological, and bandgap data. Both the CeO₂ and CoS₂ show crystal structure with cubic and pyrite phase. It was found to be the crystal size of CeO₂ nanorods, CoS₂-CeO₂ and CoS₂-CeO₂/CSCS were 56.19 nm, 62.11 nm, and 65.14 nm, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of CeO₂ nanorods, CoS₂-CeO_2, and CoS₂-CeO₂/CSCS nanocomposites was evaluated with the photo-degradation of 4-nitrophenol (4NP) as a toxic organic pollutant under UV light irradiation. The 4NP photo-degradation amount reached 95.42% after 60 min UV light irradiation for CoS₂-CeO₂/CSCS nanocomposites due to the band gap data of CoS₂-CeO₂/CSCS was lower than other catalyst and photocatalytic modification process. The antimicrobial data indicated the significant properties of CoS₂-CeO₂/CSCS nanocomposites for this study.

Keywords: Antimicrobial; Cellulose-chitosan; CoS(2)-CeO(2); Photocatalytic; Ultrasonic.