Synthesis of CeO2 Porous Nanospheres with Tunable Pore and Particle Sizes and Their Adsorption to Methyl Orange

Abstract

The catalytic performance of ceria oxide (CeO[Formula: see text] was greatly influenced by the materials’ structure and surface area. In this paper, CeO2 porous nanospheres (PNS) with tunable pore and sphere sizes were synthesized by a solvothermal method using diethylene glycol as reaction media. All the as-synthesized CeO2 PNS presented good adsorption capacity for methyl orange, which makes them potential application in waste water treatment conveniently and economically. The control over the sphere and pore sizes of CeO2 PNS was achieved by regulating the volume of water bubble in the reaction system, which supplied limited room for the assembling of preformed CeO2 small nano-precursors.