Eco-friendly and morphologically-controlled synthesis of porous CeO2 microstructure and its application in water purification.
A novel and eco-friendly route for the synthesis of porous CeO(2) microstructure is reported. The citric acid mediated economical route is developed for the synthesis of a three-dimensional (3D) flowerlike micro/nanocomposite structure. Materials were characterized by a complementary combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). CeO(2) samples obtained have remarkably high surface area when compared to the commercial CeO(2) sample. The surface area of CeO(2) sample decreased upon calcination at higher temperature. However, the surface area is still almost 20 times more when compared to the commercial CeO(2) sample. TEM investigation reveals that upon calcination at higher temperature, the size of the crystal increased but the short range order was merely disturbed. The analyses shows that the present method is suitable as a direct route for synthesizing nanoporous CeO(2). Micro/nanocomposite CeO(2) was found to be an excellent sorbent for the removal of poisonous pollutants present in water, such as arsenic (As) and chromium (Cr).
Srivastava
Rajendra
R
Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar 140 001, India. rajendra@iitrpr.ac.in