Hydrothermal synthesis of triangular CeCO₃OH particles and photoluminescence properties

Ru/CeO₂ [RC] and Ru/CeO₂/ethylene glycol (EG) [RCE] nanoparticles were produced by performing a simple hydrothermal reaction at 200 °C for 24 h and found to have two distinct morphologies. The RC nanoparticles are phase pure CeO₂; triangular highly crystalline CeCO₃OH nanoparticles are formed from the solution containing EG under the same hydrothermal reaction conditions at pH 8.5. EG plays an important role in the formation of the triangular CeCO₃OH nanoparticles. The polycrystalline CeCO₃OH nanoparticles retain their triangular structure even after calcination at 600 °C in air but are transformed into a pure CeO₂ phase. The room temperature photoluminescence of the RC and RCE nanoparticles and of RCE calcined at 600 °C [RCE-600] was also investigated. It was found that the high crystallinity triangular RCE-600 sample exhibits the highest photoluminescence intensity.