Structural, photoluminescence and thermoluminescence properties of CeO2 nanoparticles

CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by a facile low temperature solution combustion method using citric acid as fuel. The structural and morphological properties of as-formed and calcined products were characterized by PXRD, SEM, TEM, Raman, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy techniques. Further, the NPs were subjected to photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) studies. PXRD results and Rietveld refinement analysis confirms the formation of single and pure cubic phase in both as-formed and calcined CeO2 NPs. In both the NPs, Raman spectra exhibit the symmetrical stretching mode of Ce-O vibrational unit at 465 cm−1. The PL emission peak appeared with CeO2 upon 237 nm excitation can be assigned to the oxygen related defects. The CIE and CCT coordinates clearly indicates the possible potential application of CeO2 nanophosphor in display devices. TL studies revealed well resolved glow peak at 224 °C along with a small shouldered peak at 131 °C. The glow peak intensity increases linearly with γ-dose which suggest CeO2 sample is suitable candidate for radiation dosimetric applications. The activation energy, order of kinetics and frequency factor was estimated using glow peak shape method. The study successfully demonstrates a facile simple route for the synthesis of multifunctional CeO2 NPs.