Selective Synthesis of Mesoporous and Nanorod CeVO4 without Template

A simple and efficient method has been established for the selective synthesis of mesoporous and nanorod CeVO4 with different precursors by sonochemical method. CeVO4 nanorod can be simply synthesized by ultrasound irradiation of Ce(NO3)3 and NH4VO3 in aqueous solution without any surfactant or template. While mesoporous CeVO4 with high specific surface area can be prepared with Ce(NO3)3, V2O5 and NaOH in the same way. Mesoporous CeVO4 has a specific surface area of 122 m2 g−1 and an average pore size of 5.2 nm; CeVO4 nanorods have a diameter of about 5 nm, and a length of 100–150 nm. The ultrasound irradiation and ammonia in the reactive solution are two key factors in the formation of such rod-like products. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric (TG) and differential thermal analyses (DTA), UV/vis absorption spectroscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) were applied for characterization of the as-prepared products.