Open AccessSignificant Improvement of Thermal Stability for CeZrPrNd Oxides Simply by Supercritical CO2 Drying
Author(s) -
Yunzhao Fan,
Zizi Wang,
Ying Xin,
Qian Li,
Zhaoliang Zhang,
Yingxia Wang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0088236
Subject(s) - supercritical fluid , surface tension , materials science , thermal stability , chemical engineering , precipitation , supercritical drying , nanoparticle , microemulsion , oxide , chemistry , nanotechnology , thermodynamics , pulmonary surfactant , metallurgy , organic chemistry , meteorology , engineering , aerogel , physics
Pr and Nd co-doped Ce-Zr oxide solid solutions (CZPN) were prepared using co-precipitation and microemulsion methods. It is found that only using supercritical CO 2 drying can result in a significant improvement of specific surface area and oxygen storage capacity at lower temperatures for CZPN after aging at 1000°C for 12 h in comparison with those using conventional air drying and even supercritical ethanol drying. Furthermore, the cubic structure was obtained in spite of the fact that the atomic ratio of Ce/(Ce+Zr+Pr+Nd) is as low as 29%. The high thermal stability can be attributed to the loosely aggregated morphology and the resultant Ce enrichment on the nanoparticle surface, which are caused by supercritical CO 2 drying due to the elimination of surface tension effects on the gas-liquid interface.