Preparation of CeO2 nanoparticles from a new cerium(III) supramolecular compound

A treatment of piperazine (H2pipz) and pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (H2pydc) with CeIII ion led to the formation of a new binuclear cerium(III) complex (H2pipz)[Ce2(pydc)4(H2O)4]·(H2O) (1). Compound 1 was characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The binuclear unit of 1 contains CeIII cations bridged by two anionic pydc2− ligands. The Cerium(III) ion is nine-coordinated by seven oxygen atoms from two water molecules and five carboxylate groups, and two nitrogen atoms from two pydc2− ligands. Non-covalent interactions i.e. hydrogen bonds are present in the crystal structure of 1 and assemble the binuclear units and the co-crystallized water and piperazine molecules into a 3D architecture. Compound 1 was used for the preparation of the CeO2 nanoparticles. Synthesized CeO2 nanoparticles were characterized by IR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the solid-state luminescent properties of compound 1 at room temperature were studied.