Colloidal ceria nanocrystals: A tailor-made crystal morphology in supercritical water

Control of the morphology of ceria nanocrystals is achieved through a simple, rapid, and green chemistry approach by tuning the reaction of organic ligand molecules with specific crystallographic planes of fluorite cubic ceria crystal during supercritical hydrothermal synthesis, as shown in the figure. It provides a novel self-assembly approach for producing metal oxide nanocrystals with uniform size and well-defined shape.