Surfactant-assisted cerium oxide and its catalytic activity towards Fenton process for non-degradable dye

Water pollution kills nearly 2 million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, which continuously threatens the survival of both human and animal species in the world. The textile industry is considered as pollutant-releasing industries in water. In this research work, we firstly report the synthesis of cerium oxide (CeO₂) nanoparticles in the range of quantum dots (QDs). Syntheses of cerium oxide nanomaterials were assisted by using three different surfactants, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS; anionic), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB; cationic), and cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC; cationic); the surfactants control the growth and particle size of the prepared material. The nanomaterials were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and thermogravimetric/differential thermal analyses (TG/DTA), together with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL). The particle size of such CeO₂ nanoparticles ranges between 1.66 and 4.36 nm. Their catalytic role was successfully investigated in Fenton reaction for the oxidative removal of methylene blue (MB) dye. The efficiency of Fenton reaction using such CeO₂ QDs has been used to highlight the importance of such nanosized catalysts for wastewater treatment. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]