Rapid synthesis and characterization of CeMCM-41

The CeMCM-41 materials were synthesized at environmental temperature with different Si/Ce ratios (10, 25, 50, 100 and 200) and were characterized by XRD, EDX nitrogen adsorption (BET–BJH), thermal analysis (TG–DTG–DTA), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), visible UV spectroscopy (UV–vis) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. The XRD patterns showed highly ordinate CeMCM-41 mesoporous materials with surface areas of 681.3–1289 m2 g− 1 and pore diameter means of 34 Å. The structural properties are strongly related to the quantity of incorporated Ce in the mesoporous structure of the MCM-41. The diffuse reflectance spectra of calcined CeMCM-41 samples showed a single peak with a maximum at 300 nm and also its intensity increases with an increase in Ce content of the samples.