Effects of PVP and CTAB surfactants on the morphology of cerium oxide nanoparticles synthesized via co-precipitation method

Abstract This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of CeO 2 nanoparticles via a simple and cost-effective co-precipitation method using cerium (III) nitrate hexahydrate, ammonium carbonate, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as the starting chemicals. The precursor was calcined at 600 °C for 2 h to obtain CeO 2 nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis results indicated that the calcined CeO 2 sample has the fluorite structure of CeO 2 and adding surfactant increases the obtained CeO 2 amount. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the CeO 2 samples consist of crystalline particles of 5–8 nm which are weakly aggregated and using the surfactants further decreases the agglomeration. The effects of PVP in decreasing the crystallite size and agglomeration, as well as, increasing the obtained CeO 2 amount have been greater than for CTAB.