Structural, optical and magnetic properties of CeO2 nanowires with nonmagnetic Mg2+ doping

Here we report nonmagnetic Mg doped CeO2 (Ce1-xMgxO2, 0.00 <= x <= 0.08) synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. The influence of Mg doping on the structure, morphology, optical and magnetic properties of CeO2 were examined by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, Raman, UV-vis and M-H curve. The SEM and TEM images display that as-synthesized samples are composed of the bundle of nanowires. Raman scattering shows that Mg doping causes a huge redshift of F-2g mode. The absorption spectra indicate that band gap energy becomes narrow and drops to 3.00 eV with Mg doping, which are attributed to the presence of defects forming a band of electron states. Magnetic measurements show saturation magnetization (MS) initially increases and then decreases and the largest MS of 1.5 x 10(-3) emu/g appears at 4 at.% Mg-doped CeO2, which is likely explained by a V-O mediated F-center exchange (FCE) mechanism. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.