Electrochemical Deposition of Eu3+-Doped CeO2 Nanobelts with Enhanced Optical Properties

Recently, rare earth (RE) ion-doped CeO2 has attracted much attention for special optical, magnetic, and catalytic properties. First reported in this paper is a facile electrochemical synthesis of Eu3+-dOped CeO2 nanobelts with greatly improved optical properties. The synthesized Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts were characterized by energy-dispersive spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results of XRD and TEM indicate that Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts were well crystallized and have cubic crystal structures. The XPS results show Eu3+ and Ce4+ coexist in these prepared nanobelts and indicate Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts were successfully prepared. The formation mechanisms of Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts were preliminarily investigated. The correlation between the band gap energies and the morphologies of these samples was studied by UV-vis absorption spectrum. The results indicate Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts had an excellent response in the visible region of solar spectrum and showed potential application for solar cells. The photoluminescent properties of Eu3+-doped CeO2 nanobelts were investigated, and the remarkable enhancement of luminescence can be clearly observed because of the rapid increase of oxygen vacancies and their special morphology.