Optical Properties of Transition Metal Ion Doped Nano Cerium Oxide

Ceria also know as cerium dioxide (CeO2), a crystalline material has received much attention in recent years due to its distinct characteristics, such as UV radiation absorbing ability, high stability at higher temperature, high hardness index and its reactivity, wide band gap (Eg=5.5eV) and high dielectrics (ε=26). Further, CeO2 can absorb light in the near UV and also absorb little light in the visible region, as a result, it absorbs larger fraction of the solar spectrum than TiO2. Further, CeO2-containing materials can be used as an efficient oxidation catalyst, because CeO2 has unique redox property and high oxygen storage capacity (OSC). Especially, they were cheap and environmental friendly catalysts for the catalytic destruction of various volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as methane, methanol and propane.