Surfactant-free hydrothermal synthesis of CePO4 microbundles assembled by aligned nanorods

•One-dimensional (1D) CePO4 microbundles composed of aligned nanorods were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method.•The synthetic strategy was rather simple and green, without any surfactant added.•The time for the formation of 1D CePO4 microbundles with desired morphology was rather short and it could be finished in 6 h.

In this research, CePO4 microbundles composed of aligned nanorods have been successfully synthesized through a facile surfactant-free hydrothermal route. The whole synthetic process was rather simple and green. And different synthetic parameters including the aging time and acidic strength were investigated such to understand the formation of the novel hierarchical microarchitectures. It was found that the hydrothermal time, as well as the acidic strength of the precursor media played a key role in mediating the assembly of one-dimensional micrcobundles from initially formed nanorods. Based on a series of experimental observations, a 'precipitation-growth' mechanism is proposed to describe the growth of the unique microstructures.