Continuous Fabrication of Monodisperse Ceria-Zirconia-Yttria Composite Oxide Nanoparticles Using a Novel High-Shear Agitation Reactor.

Monodisperse ceria-zirconia nanoparticles have attracted much attention as potential high-performance catalysts. Acidic aqueous solutions are generally used for peptizing aggregated precipitates during the fabrication of disperse nanoparticles. However, the peptization process requires multiple hours of aging, which significantly decreases the production efficiency. Hence, various researchers have attempted to eliminate this stage altogether by performing a coprecipitation process under ambient conditions using common salts as the starting materials. In this work, we report a continuous and direct technique for the fabrication of monodisperse composite oxide nanoparticles via coprecipitation inside a novel high-shear agitation reactor without aging. Using this method, monodisperse ceria-zirconia-yttria composite oxide nanoparticles with diameters of 3 nm were successfully synthesized.