A spray drying system for synthesis of rare-earth doped cerium oxide nanoparticles

We have constructed a spray dryer to synthesize doped ceria nanoparticles. The system was employed to synthesize mixed oxide nanoparticles of praseodymium doped CeO(2) (Ce(0.97)Pr(0.03)O(2), Ce(0.90)Pr(0.10)O(2), and Ce(0.80)Pr(0.20)O(2)). X-ray diffraction confirmed the fluorite-like cubic crystal structure of the synthesized materials after heat treatment at 700 degrees C for 2 h. As-dried CeO(2) samples were found to have an average particle size of (6.0 +/- 0.2) nm which increased to (17.0 +/- 0.4) nm after heat treatment with an improvement in crystallinity. The particle size increased steadily with Pr content. The lattice parameter of Pr-doped CeO(2) was found to increase or decrease with Pr content depending on the heat treatment process. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.