GU MingJie, LI RiXing, SONG XiaoZhen, ZHAO Bin

(Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

Abstract: Nitrogen-doped CeO₂ nanoparticles with various nitrogen contents were synthesized by solvothermal method at 120℃ using Ce (NO₃)₃·6H₂O, triethanolamine (TEA), and methanol under different conditions. The samples were characterized by XRD, BET, TEM and elemental analysis. The photocatalytic performances of the powders were evaluated by using acid orange 7 (AO7) as degradation agent. The results showed that nitrogen atoms had been successfully incorporated into CeO₂  lattice and improved the degradation efficiency. Nitrogen-doped CeO₂ nanoparticles, which were synthesized with a molar ratio of N : Ce = 0.3 for the starting materials exhibited the best degradation efficiency of 93.9 %, however, the degradation of AO7 only reached 44.3 % by undoped CeO₂.

Key words:  ceria; solvothermal method; doping; nanoparticles