Boonyuen S.Smith S.M.Luengnaruemitchai A.Nakorn P.N.Tangjaideborisu Y.Shanmugam P.Mahidol University2025-01-232025-01-232025-03-01Inorganic Chemistry Communications Vol.173 (2025)13877003https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/102987The field of wastewater treatment is currently experiencing a surge in interest regarding the development of nanocomposites utilizing mesoporous materials. In this study, our focus was on developing eco-friendly, high-surface-area CeO2 composites, acting as active photocatalysts responsive to visible light, and integrating them into highly porous SBA-15 composites. The SBA-15/CeO2 photocatalyst was successfully prepared using a simple precipitation method followed by a hydrothermal process. The SBA-15/CeO2 composites were characterized using various physicochemical techniques including XRD, FTIR, SEM/EDS/mapping, TEM, DRS-UV and BET analysis. The HRTEM results revealed that SBA-15/CeO2 composites, the spherical shaped CeO2 loaded onto the hexagonal of SBA-15. The introduction of CeO2 into SBA-15 matrices yields composites with tuning the energy band gap and increased the specific surface. Notably, SBA-15/CeO2 composites demonstrates remarkable efficacy in degrading methylene blue dye (MB) and tetracycline bio-waste (TC) under sunlight irradiation, achieving degradation rates of 94.24 % and 90.18 %, respectively, within just 90 min. By integrating mesoporous SBA-15 with CeO2, the composite materials experience a substantial increase in surface area, broaden their optical absorption spectrum, and reduce their energy bandgap, consequently enhancing their photocatalytic activity towards MB and TC pollutants. The recycling efficiency and detailed mechanism of MB and TC are also discussed.Materials ScienceChemistryArticleSCOPUS10.1016/j.inoche.2024.1138622-s2.0-85214006531