Effect of Fe2O3 on CeO2 films in the photocatalytic evaluation towards the degradation of brilliant green and oxytetracycline

This paper presents a photochemical synthesis method for producing pure CeO₂ deposits and CeO₂ deposits loaded with varying proportions of Fe₂O₃. The deposits were calcined at 950 °C and characterized structurally, compositionally, and morphologically using XRD, XPS, SEM, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Cerianite and hematite phases were identified in CeO₂/Fe₂O₃ samples, indicating heterogeneous surface deposits. Photocatalytic testing under UV–Vis illumination for 5 h demonstrated promising results. For the degradation of bright green dye, efficiencies of 78.9 % and 90.1 % were achieved for pure CeO₂ and CeO₂ samples loaded with 1.0 mol% Fe₂O₃, respectively. Similarly, for oxytetracycline drug degradation, performance rates of 35.3 % and 67.0 % were observed for CeO₂ and CeO₂ samples loaded with 1.0 mol% Fe₂O₃, respectively. Recyclability tests showed a gradual decline in photocatalytic performance over successive cycles due to by-product accumulation contaminating the catalyst.