Cerium oxide has recently received a lot of attention as a consequence of its catalytic properties that make it attractive for a wide range of applications ranging from solid oxide fuel cell, to three way catalysts gas sensors, etc. Although several methods have been proposed for the synthesis of ultrafine powders, the majority of them do not allow the production of powder with high specific area and they all generally require a calcination step for the crystallisation of the amorphous phase produced. Nanocrystalline ceria particles were successfully produced by one-step microwave-assisted synthesis from a glycol solution of metal nitrates under mild conditions (140?C, 1 atm). The as-prepared powder showed a good crystallinity and nanometric particle size. This simple and economic soft chemical method leads to nanometric cerium oxide with an high specific surface area suitable for catalytic applications
