Synthesis and characterization of 2D layered gadolinium-doped cerium oxide (CGO) nanomaterials

By the virtue of versatility in composition, morphology, and structure, two-dimensional (2D) layerednanomaterials have attracted in the last decade huge interest. Such materials, consisting in stacked chargednanosheets intercalated with opposite charged exchangeable anions, are of great potential for the design andfabrication of nanomaterials in many applications.

Indeed, the interlayer gallery provides a flexible space toaccommodate various sized molecules (e.g. pollutants) and tune specific active sites at the atomic space (e.g.catalyst materials). The interest for 2D layered nanomaterials is also associated with the possibility ofobtaining via exfoliation ultra-thin nanosheets with lateral dimensions of hundreds of nanometres andthickness of few nanometres.

This unique class of nanomaterials has shown many unprecedented propertiesmainly originating from the dimensional anisotropy and nano-confinement effects.Herein we propose novel 2D layered ceria based oxides (e.g. CGO) synthesized via the heterogeneousprecipitation. CGO materials were selected because of their strategic relevance in many technologicalapplications (e. g. catalysis and electrochemical devices).

The synthesized CGO layered materials werecharacterized for their composition, morphology and crystallographic features. The combined experimentalresults indicated that the layered CGO, with tunable dopant concentration, can be obtained in differentmorphologies by controlling the synthesis parameters.