Synthesis of single-crystalline Ce(CO3)(OH) with novel dendrite morphology and their thermal conversion to CeO2

Single-crystalline cerium carbonate hydroxide (Ce(CO3)(OH)) with dendrite morphologies have been successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method at 150 oC using Ce(NO3)3.6H2O as the cerium source, aqueous carbamide as both an alkaline and carbon source and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as surfactant. Ceria (CeO2) with dendrite morphologies have been fabricated by a thermal decomposition-oxidation process at 500 oC for 6 h using single-crystalline Ce(CO3)(OH) dendrites as the precursor. The dendrite morphologies of Ce(CO3)(OH) was sustained after thermal decomposition-oxidation to CeO2. The as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG).