Cerium oxide nanofibers via electrospinning: a potential material to purge waterways of chemical pollutants and foodborne pathogens

Food is frequently contaminated by foodborne pathogens, predominantly bacteria and fungi but occasionally certain viruses as well as protozoa during production, preparation, preservation, and transit before consumption. Cerium oxide (CeO₂) nanofibers (NFs) were synthesized by electrospinning method and calcined at 500 °C. NFs were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA, FT-IR, UV-DRS, and RAMAN. Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, two foodborne pathogenic bacteria, were tested using minimum inhibitory concentration approach at different doses. CeO₂ NFs displayed excellent photocatalytic performance for degradation of methyl orange (MO) under UV light, indicating that they could be useful photocatalyst for water remediation. CeO₂ NFs degraded out more than 94% of MO in less than 100 min, and highest concentration (160 µg/ML) had robustly inhibited the examined pathogenic strains. The results of this work provide new-fangled avenues for application as an active photocatalyst for removal of chemical pollutants from industrial waste waterways and inhibition of Gram-negative bacteria. Convincingly, it is fascinating to note that these electrospun CeO₂ NFs can be utilized to purify contaminated water and food as well.