Controlled synthesis of CeO2 microstructures from 1D rod-like to 3D lotus-like and their morphology-dependent properties

Abstract

Monodisperse 3D lotus-like CeO2 microstructures have been successfully synthesized via controlling the morphology of CeCO3OH precursors under hydrothermal condition as well as subsequent calcination. The reaction time was systematically investigated. XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, XPS, Raman scattering and Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were employed to characterize the samples. The lotus-like CeO2 hierarchical structures with an average of 4–6 μm are composed of many nanoplates of 100–200 nm in thickness as the petals stacking together to form open flowers and have a fluorite cubic structure. Based on the time-dependent morphology evolution evidences, a nucleation-dissolution-recrystallization mechanism has been proposed to explain the transformation from rod-like structures to lotus-like CeO2 hierarchical structures with the increase of reaction time. It is found that there are Ce3+ ions and oxygen vacancies in surface of samples. The magnetic and photoluminescence measurements indicated that all CeO2 samples exhibit excellent ferromagnetism and optical properties at room temperature, and while increasing the reaction time, the ferromagnetism and optical properties increase more, which can be reasonably explained for the influences of the different morphology of the particles and the concentration of oxygen vacancies and Ce3+ ions.