Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become a widely accepted global planarization technology. Abrasive is one of key elements during CMP process. In order to enhance removal rate and improve surface quality of sapphire substrate, a series of novel Ce-doped colloidal SiO2 composite abrasives were prepared by chemical co-precipitation method. The CMP performances of the Ce-doped colloidal SiO2 composite abrasives on sapphire substrate were investigated by using UNIPOL-1502 polishing equipment. The analyses on the surface of polished sapphire substrate indicate that slurries containing the Ce-doped colloidal SiO2 composite abrasives exhibit lower surface roughness, higher material removal rate than that of pure colloidal SiO2 abrasive under the same testing conditions. Furthermore, the acting mechanism of the Ce-doped colloidal silica in sapphire CMP was investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows that solid-state chemical reactions between Ce-doped silica abrasives and sapphire surface occur during CMP process, which can promote the chemical effect in CMP and lead to the improvement of material removing rate. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.