Ceria (CeO2) is a technologically important rare earth material because of its unique properties and various engineering and biological applications. A facile, rapid, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly microwave irradiation method has been developed to prepare ceria nanoparticles with the average size 7 nm using a set of ionic liquids based on the bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide anion and different cations of 1-alkyl-3-methyl-imidazolium. The structural features and optical properties of the nanoparticles were determined in depth with X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscope, N2 adsorption-desorption technique, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, and Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The energy band gap measurements of nanoparticles of ceria have been carried out by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on using this type of ionic liquids in ceria nanoparticle synthesis.

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