Nano-sized ceria particles were coated on the silica surface by the precipitation method using ammonium cerium nitrate and urea as precipitant with poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as assistant. The structures and compositions of ceria-coated silica particles were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. The results show that nano-size ceria particles were coated uniformly around the surface of silica particles when PVP was used as assistant during coating process, while without PVP, the ceria particles were grown sparsely on the silica particle surface and many ceria particles grow up through independent nucleation in the solution. Then, the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) behaviors of the as-prepared ceria-coated silica particles on glass substrate were investigated. The CMP test results suggest that the as-prepared ceria-coated silica particles exhibit higher removal rate than pure silica particles without deteriorating the surface quality. In addition, online coefficient of friction (COF) was conducted during the polishing process. The COF data indicate that the COF values of ceria-coated silica particles are larger than those of pure silica particles due to their surface properties. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.