Template-free hydrothermal synthesis and CO oxidation properties of flower-like CeO2 nanostructures

KClO 3 , a strong oxidant, was employed in the template-free hydrothermal synthesis of flower-like CeO 2 . The structure and physicochemical properties of the samples were characterized via the XRD, N 2 adsorption, FE-SEM, TEM, HRTEM, H 2 -TPR techniques. Through a series of experiments, the formation of flower-like CeO 2 is strongly dependent on reaction time. Meanwhile, the transformation of two phases (Ce(HCOO) 3 and CeO 2 ) and a possible mechanism for the formation of flower-like CeO 2 were preliminarily proposed. The result shows that the H 2 consumption for surface reduction of the flower-like CeO 2 sample is significantly higher than the commercial CeO 2 sample and the BET surface area of the flower-like ceria nanoparticles is 38.8   m 2 /g, which are benificial to the catalytic reaction. Compared with the commercial CeO 2 , the as-prepared flower-like CeO 2 possesses the better catalytic performance for CO conversion.