Bandgap Tuning And Magnetism In Cerium Oxide Based Nanocomposites

Abstract

The increasing concern for environmental sustainability has led to enhance interest in newline developing efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective methods for wastewater treatment. newline As industrialization and urbanization accelerate, the complexity and diversity of newline pollutants present in industrial, agricultural, and municipal wastewater have rendered newline traditional water purification methods insufficient. Conventional methods such as newline coagulation, filtration, and chemical oxidation are often ineffective against a wide newline range of contaminants, including Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), dyes, heavy newline metals, and pharmaceutical residues. These pollutants pose significant threats to newline ecosystems and public health, necessitating the development of advanced water newline treatment technologies. Among the emerging solutions, photocatalysis has garnered newline significant attention due to its ability to harness solar or artificial light energy to drive newline oxidative and reductive reactions, leading to the degradation of harmful substances into newline non-toxic by-products, primarily water and carbon dioxide. Cerium Oxide (CeO2), a newline rare earth metal oxide, has been recognized for its outstanding photocatalytic and newline catalytic properties, which are mainly attributed to its redox behavior, high Oxygen newline Storage Capacity (OSC), and its ability to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). newline In particular, intrinsic ability of CeO2 to absorb UV light and generate electron-hole newline pairs under irradiation has shown promise in decomposing organic pollutants. newline However, to achieve higher efficiency under visible light crucial for practical newline applications given the broad solar spectrum CeO2 needs to be modified through doping newline or by creating composite materials with enhanced photocatalytic performance. newline