A mild solution strategy for the synthesis of mesoporous CeO2 nanoflowers derived from Ce(HCOO)3

Abstract

In this paper, a facile and economical route based on an oxidation induced phase transformation in alcoholic solution was developed to prepare mesoporous CeO₂ nanoflowers. The whole process could be divided into two steps: the formation of Ce(HCOO)₃ with flower-like structures and the oxidation induced phase transformation from Ce(HCOO)₃ to CeO₂ with unchanged morphology in the alcoholic solution. TEM results revealed that the CeO₂ nanoflowers consist of rods with length and diameter of 100 and 30 nm, respectively. N₂ adsorption/desorption experiments indicated that the CeO₂ nanoflowers display mesoporous structures with a mean pore size of 4 nm, and the BET surface area and pore volume of such flower-like structures are 95.7 m² g⁻¹ and 0.173 cm³ g⁻¹, respectively. Prompted by the mesoporous structure, high surface area and high pore volume, we speculate that these mesoporous CeO₂ flowers could be promising candidates for practical catalytic application.