Ceria nanoparticles were obtained by the calcination of precursors synthesised via the solvothermal reaction of cerium acetate. The CeO(2) samples obtained by the thermal decomposition of Ce(C(7)H(15)COO)(3)center dot xH(2)O synthesised by solvothermal reaction in 1,4-butanediol in the presence of octanoic acid had an extremely large surface area of 180 m(2)/g. The Ru catalyst supported on this CeO(2) sample showed a high catalytic activity for benzyl alcohol oxidation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.