Surfactant-assisted large-scale preparation of crystalline CeO2 nanorods

Large-scale nanorods of crystalline cerium oxide were prepared by a simple surfactant-assisted hydrothermal process in the presence of the cationic surfactant CTMABr. The nanorods present a fluorite single-crystalline structure with lengths ranging from 150 to 400 nm and diameters ranging from 10 to 25 nm. The obtained CeO2 nanorods were single crystalline and uniform with quite thin diameters of 10 to 25 nm. The removal of the surfactant species and the oxidation of Ce(OH)3 lead to pure single-crystalline CeO 2 nanorods and a scaffoldlike assembly, justifying the relative high surface area of the resulting nanorods.