Cerium based photocatalysts for the degradation of acridine orange in visible light

In the present study, Ce based catalysts were synthesized for the degradation of acridine orange (AO). The Ce-Sr and Ce-Cd oxides were synthesized through sol-gel method and applied for the degradation of acridine orange dye (AO) under visible light influence for environmental remediation. 0.03 mM AO was prepared and 1 g/L of the Ce-Cd and Ce-Sr oxides were applied for degradation of AO. The structure and morphology of the synthesized materials were examined through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the HOMO and LUMO energy differences were determined through diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). Both the catalysts were grown in sheet morphology; and the average size of each sheet in Ce-Cd oxide is approximately equal to 790 nm while its average particle size is approximately equal to 20-25 nm, but Ce-Sr oxide average sheet size and particle size were smaller than Ce-Cd oxide. The band gap 2.65 and 2.7 eV for a Ce-Sr and Ce-Cd oxides signifies the high catalytic performance under visible light. The photocatalytic performances of Ce-Cd and Ce-Sr were evaluated against AO dye which resulted 90.2 and 86.6% degradation in 3 h under visible light. These studies showed the high efficiency of Ce based catalysts for environmental remediation.