Nanoceria (CeO2) and a new beta-cyclodextrin coated CeO2 nanocomposite (beta-CD-CeO2) materials were prepared by using a combination of precipitation and sol-gel method for efficient degradation of organic dyes from aqueous solutions at room temperature. The prepared catalysts were characterized by using various analytical techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, Pyridine adsorbed FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy, FESEM, TEM and HRTEM. The XRD study suggests the formation of nanocrystalline materials which is further confirmed from the TEM photographs. The presence of oxygen vacancies and lattice defects of the samples were confirmed by Raman analysis. The thermal stability of the prepared catalysts was tested by TGA measurements. UV Vis analyses were performed to find out the band gap energy and absorbance in the solid state. The beta-CD-CeO2 has the particle diameter of 14 +/- 2 nm with band gap of 4.93 eV. The degradation of the methylene blue (MB) was performed by using the prepared catalysts at room temperature in the presence of H2O2 without light irradiation. The process of degradation produces LMB sulfone with m/z = 317 amu, which further lost one or both of its dimethylamine groups to produce substances with m/z = 273 amu and m/z = 229 amu. It was observed that beta-CD-CeO2 efficiently degrades the MB solution completely within 1 h whereas CeO2 degrades the solution partially giving a higher rate constant value for the former. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.