Ag/CeO₂ nanostructured materials for enhanced photocatalytic and antibacterial applications

Well crystalline Ag/CeO₂ nano-structured material being utilized for its photocatalytic and antibacterial activities was synthesized via simple solution combustion synthesis (SCS) approach using tartaric acid as a fuel. Interconnection of Ag with CeO₂ was investigated to determine its morphological, structural, crystalline, surface and optical properties using common characterization tools. The synthesized Ag–CeO₂ materials are of high purity and well-crystalline, having a porous nature with an average pore size of ∼5–7 nm. As-synthesized Ag–CeO₂ materials were utilized as photocatalyst for catalytic Rhodamine B (RhB) dye degradation under UV irradiation, showing the almost full degradation of RhB dye molecules in 150 min. As-synthesized Ag/CeO₂ nanostructured materials were also investigated for their antibacterial activity toward gram positive (S. aureus) and gram negative (P. aeruginosa) strains of bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration for inhibiting the growth of S. aureus (gram positive) and P. Aureginosa (gram negative) were found to be 3.125 μg/ml and 6.25 μg/ml in the presence of Ag/CeO₂ materials. The results obtained for Ag/CeO₂ materials clearly displayed the significantly improved catalytic and antibacterial properties in comparison with pure CeO₂.