Preparation and size control of cerium(IV) oxide ultrafine nanoparticles

CeO₂ ultrafine nanoparticles (made by reaction of cerium(IV) sulphate with ammonia solution) have been treated in suspension in boiling water, N,N-dimethylformamide and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for various times. Prepared nanoparticles were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence, infrared spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Sizes of nanoparticles were calculated by using Scherrer formula. Validation of nanoparticles sizes, shapes and ordering was determined from HRTEM images. It has been discovered that sizes of nanoparticles increase with increasing boiling point of the solvent and with increasing time. Maximal sizes of nanoparticles were 8.9 nm and were obtained by treatment in boiling DMSO. Obtained nanoparticles were high quality, separable and had cubical-like (smaller ones) and spherical-like (bigger ones) shapes. The main advantage of this method is simply enabling its use in almost all chemical laboratories and high quality characterisation of nanoparticles sizes by HRTEM and XRD.