Cassava-starch-assisted sol-gel synthesis of CeO2 nanoparticles

Cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using native cassava starch as a sizelimiting chelating agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy analysis revealed that all synthesized samples exhibited a cubic CeO2 structure. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and XRD observations showed that increasing the calcination temperature increased the average crystallite particle sizes from 8.1 to 12.7 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman results also revealed that reduction in the valence of Ce4+ to Ce3+ caused an increase in the molar fraction of oxygen vacancies, resulting in the presence of structural defects in the CeO2 lattice. The cassava-starch-assisted sol-gel method proved to be highly efficient for the synthesis of highly crystalline CeO2 nanoparticles with potential for industrial applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.