Nanostructured ceria: a comparative study from X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and BET specific surface measurements

We present a comparative study of nanostructured materials, based on three experimental analyses allowing determination of crystallite sizes or specific surfaces: each of these analyses, X-ray diffraction profile analyses (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) gas adsorption technique, should deliver nanoparticle size determination from a specific modelling approach. These three experimental techniques were used to correlate specific surfaces to grain sizes, in the case of nanostructured powders of cerium dioxide, CeO(2). Ceria powders were first elaborated by a sol-gel method and then subjected to various heat treatments: the resulting sizes calculated from these XRD, Raman and BET techniques were compared and discussed. Nanocrystal sizes were finally correlated to crystal lattice parameters and Raman frequency. (c) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.