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

In this project, we have prepared a nanostructure of CeO2 nanorods, CoS2-CeO2, 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-CeO2, 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.