Electronic Structure and Room Temperature Ferromagnetism in Gd-doped Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles for Hydrogen Generation via Photocatalytic Water Splitting.

Enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of Gd-doped CeO nanoparticles (NPs) is experimentally demonstrated, whereas there are very few reports on this mechanism with rare earth doping. All-pure and Gd-doped CeO NPs are synthesized using a coprecipitation method and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), absorption spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The effect of Gd-doping on properties of CeO is discussed along with defects and oxygen vacancies generation.