Fruit juice extract mediated synthesis of CeO2 nanoparticles for antibacterial and photocatalytic activities

Ceria (CeO2) is a technologically important rare-earth material because of its unique properties and various engineering/biological applications. In the present work, cerium oxide nanoparticles have been prepared by a simple solution combustion method using watermelon juice as a novel combustible fuel. The structure and morphology of the synthesized CeO2 nanoparticles were analyzed using various analytical tools such as PXRD, FTIR, Raman, UV-Visible and SEM. PXRD pattern confirms that the prepared material is composed of cubic-phase cerium oxide nanoparticles. Photocatalytic degradation of Methylene blue dye using CeO2 nanoparticles shows 98% of degradation in UV irradiations. Furthermore the antibacterial properties of CeO2 nanoparticles were investigated by their bacterial activity against two bacterial strains using the agar well diffusion method.