Effect of iron doping and annealing on structural and optical properties of cerium oxide nanocrystals

Nanocrystalline fluorite-like structures of Ce1−xFexO2−δ compounds were prepared by chemical precipitation method using cerium chloride and iron chloride as precursors. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The effects of iron doping concentration and annealing on particle size, lattice parameter and band gap energies were investigated. The particle size of Fe-doped CeO2 samples were found to decrease with iron concentration and it increases from 9 to 26 nm as annealing temperature increases to 900 °C.