Cerium carbonate hydroxide and ceria micro/nanostructures: Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical properties of CeCO3OH

Cerium hydroxide carbonate (CeCO3OH) nano and microcrystals were synthesized by the hydrothermal method at 180 °C using cerium nitrate (Ce(NO3)3·6H2O) as the cerium source, urea as both an alkaline and carbonate source with cetyltrimetylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the directing agent. By varying many of the experimental parameters such as the molar ratio CTAB/Ce(NO3)3·6H2O [CTAB/Ce], cerium hydroxide carbonate nanomaterials with different morphologies were obtained. However, cerium oxide (CeO2) micro/nanostructure is obtained through the thermal decomposition of CeCO3OH at 300 °C for 1 h. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal analyses (TG-DTA) were the techniques used to study the resulting products. The CeCO3OH microstructure exhibits an excellent electrochemical reversibility, which is an important feature with many applications such as in lithium ion batteries.