Synthesis of Zero, One, and Three Dimensional CeO2 Particles and CO Oxidation over CuO/CeO2

A method to synthesize zero, one, and three dimensional (0D, 1D, 3D) CeO2 from single crystal cerium formate by a surfactant-free route using H2O, ethanol and ethylene glycol as solvents is shown. 0D CeO2 was composed of aggregated particles of 0.2–0.5 μm. 1D CeO2 was hexagonal rods that were 25–30 μm in width and more than 500 μm in length. The pine needle shaped 3D CeO2 was assembled from smooth rods of 1 to 5 μm diameter and up to 50 μm length that had CeO2 nanoparticles as building units to give 3D micro/nanocomposite structures with a high BET surface area of 234 m2/g. Both 5 wt% CuO/1D CeO2 and 5 wt% CuO/3D CeO2 exhibited high catalytic activities for CO conversion due to the high BET surface area and the facile reducibility of surface CeO2.