Effect of cerium nitrate concentration on morphologies, structure and photocatalytic activities of CeO2 nanoparticles synthesized by microwave interface method

Cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO2-x-NPs, where x was the concentration of cerium nitrate) were prepared by microwave interface method which combined microwave heating with vapor-liquid diffusion technology. The effects of cerium nitrate concentration on the structure, morphology and photocatalytic property were investigated. The results show that with the increase of cerium nitrate concentration, the specific surface area of CeO2-x-NPs decreases, the concentration of oxygen vacancies decreases and the morphology changes from nanorods to nanospheres. The CeO2-0.02 sample has the highest degradation efficiency of 98% within 150 min for degradation of methylene blue solution (MB) under UV irradiation. Decreasing the cerium nitrate concentration has a positive effect for improving the photocatalytic activity of the samples. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.