Abstract
Thin films of Ce-propionate (thickness below 20 nm) have been deposited by spin coating and pyrolysed into ceria at temperatures below 200 °C. After 1 h of thermal treatment, no signature of the vibrational modes of Ce-propionate is detected by infrared spectroscopy, indicating that decomposition has been completed. The resulting ceria films are nanocrystalline as revealed by X-ray diffraction (average grain size of 2-2.5 nm) and confirmed by microscopy. They are transparent in the visible region and show the characteristic band gap absorption below 400 nm. A direct band gap energy of 3.50 ± 0.05 eV has been deduced irrespective of the pyrolysis temperature (160, 180 and 200 °C). © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1949-1953 |
Journal | Thin Solid Films |
Volume | 520 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2012 |
Keywords
- Ceria
- Cerium propionate
- Crystal microstructure
- Optical absorption
- Pyrolysis
- Thermal decomposition
- Thermogravimetry