Biogenic Ceria Nanoparticles (CeO₂ NPs) for Effective Photocatalytic and Cytotoxic Activity

Ceria nanoparticles (CeO₂ NPs) are generally considered in various functional applications, such as catalysts in fuel cells, sensors, and antioxidant and oxidase-like enzymes in the biological environment. The CeO₂ NPs were synthesized using the E. globulus leaf extract-mediated hydrothermal technique. The synthesized NPs were characterized by various analytical instruments including powder X-ray diffractometer (PXRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. The XRD results showed an average NPs sizes of 13.7 nm. Cytotoxic study results showed an IC₅₀ value of 45.5 µg/L for A549 and 58.2 µg/L for HCT 116, indicating that CeO₂ NPs are more toxic to A549 compared to HCT116 cell lines. The generation of ROS was responsible for its cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines. Specific surface area (40.96 m²/g) and pore diameter (7.8 nm) were measured using Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. CeO₂ NPs with a high surface area were used as photocatalyst in degrading sunset yellow (SY) dye under UV-irradiation and 97.3% of the dye was degraded within 90 min. These results suggest that the synthesized CeO₂ NPs could be used as a good photocatalyst as well as a cytotoxic agent against human cancer cell lines.