One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of CeO2 hollow microspheres

In this work, we report a simple one-pot hydrothermal approach to prepare CeO2 hollow microspheres with a mean diameter of 1.5 μm and a shell thickness of 90 nm. Structure and morphology of CeO2 hollow spheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and N2 adsorption–desorption. In the reaction system, l-asparagine and KBrO3 act as OH− provider and oxidizer, respectively. Reaction duration and l-asparagine content are shown to play important roles in the formation of the hollow structures. A hollowing mechanism is proposed based on the experimental results.