Multifunctional properties of ceria nanocubes synthesized by a hydrothermal method

Nanosized ceria is an extremely versatile and commercially valuable material because of its industrially important applications. The present work describes the synthesis of ceria nanocubes by a simple hydrothermal method. The size of the synthesized ceria nanocubes are 8–20 nm. The formation of ceria phase has been corroborated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. Selected area electron diffraction patterns obtained for the nanocubes are also precisely indexed to the cubic ceria phase. The synthesized ceria nanocubes exhibit a high surface area of $$26\hbox { m}²\hbox { g}^-1$$ and also high catalytic activity. The work also investigates the influence of ceria nanocubes on the corrosion resistance of sol–gel hybrid coatings in 3.5% NaCl solution on AA2024 substrates. The corrosion behaviour of the sol–gel coatings revealed that ceria nanocubes reinforce the barrier properties of the sol–gel coatings and confer longer active protection to the metallic substrate.