A green approach for morphology and size-controlled fabrication of cerium oxide using leaf extract of Mangifera indica for photocatalytic activities

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AbstractGreen synthesis offers environmental benefits and prevents harmful by-products. This article reports on the green synthesis of cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) using aqueous leaf extract of Mangifera indica (M. indica) and an investigation of its photocatalytic activity. M. indica has not yet been reported to be used in the synthesis of CeO2 NPs. CeO2 NPs were synthesized using two different precursors; Ce(NO3)3·6H2O and CeCl3·7H2O with two different concentrations of aqueous leaf extracts of M. indica at 80 °C. The products were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform-Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The two different precursors have shown differences in the structural and morphological properties of the synthesized CeO2 NPs. The XRD results indicated that the crystallite size was in the range from 13 to 18 nm. FT-IR detected the presence of organic functional groups on the surface of the synthesized CeO2 NPs. The morphology and average particle size of the produced CeO2 NPs, which ranged from 42 to 90 nm, were revealed by FE-SEM. Photocatalytic activities findings showed that CeO2 synthesized with a low concentration of aqueous leaf extract and Ce nitrate as precursor showed the highest percentage (17–19%) of photocatalytic transformation of 4-nitrophenol to 4-nitrophenolate ion under visible light irradiation. This confirms that the amount of extract and type of anions play a critical role in the fabrication of responsive and active CeO2 NPs. This also confirms that CeO2 synthesized through a green synthesis method may potentially give a response for visible light irradiation activities.