Template-Free Hydrothermal Synthesis of CeO₂ Nano-octahedrons and Nanorods: Investigation of the Morphology Evolution

Abstract

Uniform single-crystalline CeO2 nano-octahedrons and nanorods were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal synthesis process only using Ce(NO3)3·6H2O as cerium resource and Na3PO4·6H2O as mineralizer, into which no surfactant or template was introduced. By tuning the hydrothermal treatment time, the morphology evolution between the nano-octahedron and nanorod was observed. Furthermore, the synthesizing mechanism and the morphological evolution of different shapes were investigated. Unlike traditional hydrothermal synthesis of CeO2 nanostructures using strong base as precipitant, Na3PO4 does not leave any impurity in the hydrothermal reaction system and makes the process very simple to obtain and separate the octahedral and rodlike morphology.