Effect of annealing temperature on the microstructural, optical and electrical properties of CeO2 nanoparticles by chemical precipitation method

Highly uniform and well-dispersed cerium oxide nanoparticles are successfully synthesized by simple precipitation method using cerium nitrate and ammonia. Effect of annealing temperature on the crystallite growth of cerium oxide nanoparticles is investigated by PL, XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, XPS, TG-DTA and I-V studies. Cubic fluorite crystallites are detected by X-ray diffraction pattern with preferred orientation along (1 1 1) direction. Annealing temperature affects the crysrallinity and structural parameters like grain size, texture coefficient, and dislocation density. The activation energy of cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles during annealing is found to be 1.004 eV. PL spectra revealed that strong and broad emission band is observed at 425 nm due to the presence of blue shift in the visible region. Large agglomerated spheroid crystallites are obtained with the typical size in the range 4-12 nm. XPS spectrum confirms the existence of Ce4+ oxidation states in Cerium oxide nanoparticles. The activation energy is calculated as 0.984 eV. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.