Synthesis of cerium oxide (IV) hollow nanospheres with tunable structure and their performance in the 4-nitrophenol adsorption.

Abstract Cerium oxide (IV) hollow nanospheres (@CeO 2) were successfully synthesized via the hydrothermal method. Cerium nitrate and urea were used as a ceria precursor and as a hydrolyzing agent, respectively. Obtained @CeO 2 nanospheres were characterized using TEM, N 2 physisorption, XRD, UV–Vis and Raman spectroscopy. The structural properties of @CeO 2 nanospheres have been tuned by a variation of the urea/cerium nitrate weight ratio during the synthesis. The adsorption capacity of @CeO 2 nanospheres was shown to be related to the size of ceria crystals forming nanospheres. Thus, the decrease of ceria crystal size permits to improve the efficiency in the adsorption of toxic 4-nitrophenol. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • @CeO 2 hollow nanospheres with a tunable structure were synthesized. • The size of CeO 2 crystals decreased with the urea content increase under the synthesis. • 4-nitrophenol adsorption capacity is high for @CeO 2 with small ceria domain size. • The force of interaction 4-nitrophenol - @CeO 2 increased with ceria size decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]