Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of rare earth doped ceria nanoparticles

Ceria (CeO2) and rare earth doped ceria (RE = Pr, Gd and Sm) of different doping concentration (10, 20 and 30 mol%) were synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis method, achieving nano-particles with weak agglomeration. The nano-particles were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), BET specific surface area measurement and thermal analysis. The size of all doped nano-particles was in the range of 13-25 nm, while the un-doped ceria nano-particles were in the range of 12-16 nm. The effect of precursor concentration on microstructure and morphology of the final powder is reported in this paper. The increase of precursor concentration led to decreases in crystallite size, increase in lattice parameter and increase in the BET specific surface area with Ce3+ from 0.005 to 0.015 M. The highest rare earth doping ratio is found to be 20, 10 and 20 mol% for Pr, Gd and Sm, respectively.