Effect of Surface Treatment of Nanocrystalline CeO2 on Its Dephosphorylation Activity and Adsorption of Inorganic Phosphates

The surface of nanocrystalline cerium oxide (CeO2) was treated with various chemical agents by a simple postmodification method at 25 °C and atmospheric pressure. Hydrogen peroxide, ammonium persulfate, deionized water, ascorbic acid, and ortho-phosphoric acid were used in order to study and evaluate their effect on surface materials, such as surface area, crystallite size, number of surface hydroxyl groups, particle morphology, and Ce3+/Ce4+ ratio. Paraoxon-methyl (PO) decomposition and inorganic phosphate adsorption were used to evaluate the effect of surface treatment on catalytic and adsorption properties. CeO2 surface was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and acid–base titration. While the treatment procedure affected the number of surface hydroxyl groups and the amount of bulk surface oxygen vacancies, only negligible changes were observed in the Ce3+/Ce4+ ratio. Interestingly, surface treatment affected the ability to decompose PO, but only a small effect on inorganic phosphate adsorption was observed, indicating the robustness of CeO2 for the latter. A mechanism for possible interaction of the used chemicals with the CeO2 surface was proposed.