Excellent near-UV emission and room-temperature ferromagnetism of square-like nano-CeO2 mingled with Ce(OH)3 synthesised by a hydrothermal method
Square-like nano-CeO2 mingled with Ce(OH)3 was successfully synthesised via a hydrothermal route using CeCl3·7H2O as cerium source, N2H4·H2O as mineraliser, and ethylenediamine as complexant. The as-synthesised nanoparticles were characterised by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering, photoluminescence spectra (PL), and magnetisation measurements. It was found that nano-CeO2 has a fluorite cubic structure, and there are defects and vacancies in the sample. PL spectrum showed excellent near-UV emission. M–H curve exhibited excellent room-temperature ferromagnetism with saturation magnetisation of 0.0300 emu/g, coercivity of 73.706 Oe, and residual magnetisation of 2.37 × 10−3 emu/g, which can be mainly associated with the surface Ce4+/Ce3+ pairs and oxygen vacancies in the nano-CeO2.
