Sol-gel synthesis, characterization, optical properties and catalytic performance of Y2Ce2O7 nanomaterial

Y2Ce2O7 nano powders were synthesized via sol-gel reactions at 900 (S1), 1000 (S2) and 1100 (S3) ˚C for 4 h using yttrium acetate (C6H9O6Y.xH2O), ammonium cerium nitrate ((NH4)2Ce(NO3)6) and stearic acid (C18H36O2) as raw materials at stoichiometric 1:1 Y:Ce molar ratio. The synthesized materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) technique and Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Structural analysis was performed by the FullProf program employing profile matching with constant scale factors. The results showed that the patterns had a main cubic Y2Ce2O7 structure with space group of Fm3m. The data showed that the lattice parameters were increased with increasing the reaction temperature. FESEM images showed that the synthesized Y2Ce2O7 particles had mono-shaped sphere morphologies. However, with increasing the reaction temperature to 1100 ˚C, the particle size scale was in micrometre range. Ultraviolet–visible spectra analysis showed that the nanostructured Y2Ce2O7 powder (S2) possessed strong light absorption property in the ultraviolet light region. The direct optical band gap was calculated as 3.15 eV. Besides, the photoluminescence spectrum for the obtained material (S2) was investigated at λex=230 nm as excitation wavelength. It showed a strong emission peak at 425 nm. Catalytic performance of the synthesized nanomaterial (S2) was also investigated in alcohol oxidation reactions which showed excellent efficiency as 75%.