Surfactant-assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis of Ceria-Zirconia Nanostructured Materials for Catalytic Applications

Abstract

CeO 2-ZrO 2 oxides were prepared by the surfactant-templated method using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as template and modified with chromium nitrate. These were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TEM, SEM, BET and TPD-CO 2. The XRD data showed that as prepared CeO 2-ZrO 2 powder particles have single phase cubic fluorite structure. HRTEM shows mesoscopic ordering. Average particle size is 12-13 nm as calculated from particle histogram. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm were classified to be type IV isotherm, typical of mesoporous material. The presence of uni-modal mesopores are confirmed by the pore size distribution which shows pore distribution at around 60 A°. Catalytic activity was studied towards liquid-phase oxidation of benzene.