Effect of Metals Oxides Loading on the Modification of Microstructure and Phase Transformation of Nanocrystalline CeZrO2 Synthesized Using Water-in-oil-Microemulsion

Abstract

In this paper, the microstructural and textural characteristics of a series of nanocrystalline CeZrFeO2 (CZF) loaded with different concentration of Fe were reported. Nanocrystalline CZF was synthesized at room temperature using water-in-oil microemulsion method. The microstructure and textural properties of CZF nanocrystal were investigated using dynamic light scattering, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and N2 adsorption–desorption analysis. The micelles size distribution of CZF samples, measured by dynamic light scattering, was found to be revealed almost similar trend of distribution pattern. More small size of micelles was formed at higher Fe concentration. The micelles were distributed in a narrow distribution size, in the range of 6 to 44nm. Xrd analysis proved that the face centered cubic of nanocrystalline CZF was successfully produced through the microemulsion synthesis, with the exposure of the samples at high calcination temperature for reduction was unnecessary. The influence of Fe loading on the modification of the microstructure and textural characteristics of CZF was clearly observed. Fe ions contributed in making the degree of crystal lattice shrinking and provided a larger surface area with the increasing of Fe concentration. XRD patterns of CZF tended to shift toward lower 2θ value with increasing Fe concentration which attributed to the replacement of Ce or Zr ions with the smaller Fe ions in Ce-Zr structure. The clearer effect of Fe loading was observed in modification of Ce-Zr textural. The surface area and average pores size of CZF increased with increasing Fe concentration, while the particle diameter decreased. All of CZF samples revealed the mesoporous profile (type IV) materials.