Synthesis of aqueous sols of nanocrystalline ceria doped with gadolinia

Novel method of synthesis of Ce$_{1-x}$Gd$_x$O$_{2-\delta}$ ($x$ = 0–0.2) aqueous sols for magnetic resonance tomography applications was proposed. Detailed physico-chemical study of sols was performed using electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. It was shown that the lattice constant of as-prepared solid solutions obeys Vegard's law. The particle size in sols prepared by combination of anionite and hydrothermal-microwave treatments is substantially smaller than the size of the particles prepared by conventional hydrothermal treatment.