Hydrothermal synthesis and sintering of ultrafine CeO2 powders
What is CeO2?Nanocrystalline cerium(IV) oxide (CeO2) powders were prepared by heating solutions of cerium(IV) salts in the presence of urea under hydrothermal conditions at 120° to 180°C. The effects of urea concentration and hydrothermal treatment temperature on the morphology and crystallite size of the synthesized particles were investigated. The synthesized particles were angular, ultrafine CeO2 with a cubic fluorite structure. Their crystallite size decreased from 20 to 10 nm with increasin