Non-catalytic hydrogenation of VO2 in acid solution

Yuliang Chen; Zhaowu Wang; Shi Chen; Hui Ren; Liangxin Wang; Guobin Zhang; Yalin Lu; Jun Jiang; Chongwen Zou; Yi Luo

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03292-y

Non-catalytic hydrogenation of VO₂ in acid solution

Nat Commun. 2018 Feb 26;9(1):818. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03292-y.

Authors

Yuliang Chen¹, Zhaowu Wang^{2

3}, Shi Chen¹, Hui Ren¹, Liangxin Wang¹, Guobin Zhang¹, Yalin Lu¹, Jun Jiang⁴, Chongwen Zou⁵, Yi Luo²

Affiliations

¹ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, China.
² Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
³ School of Physics and Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Henan Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Energy Storage Materials and Applications, Luoyang, 471023, Henan, China.
⁴ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China. jiangj1@ustc.edu.cn.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, China. czou@ustc.edu.cn.

Abstract

Hydrogenation is an effective way to tune the property of metal oxides. It can conventionally be performed by doping hydrogen into solid materials with noble-metal catalysis, high-temperature/pressure annealing treatment, or high-energy proton implantation in vacuum condition. Acid solution naturally provides a rich proton source, but it should cause corrosion rather than hydrogenation to metal oxides. Here we report a facile approach to hydrogenate monoclinic vanadium dioxide (VO₂) in acid solution at ambient condition by placing a small piece of low workfunction metal (Al, Cu, Ag, Zn, or Fe) on VO₂ surface. It is found that the attachment of a tiny metal particle (~1.0 mm) can lead to the complete hydrogenation of an entire wafer-size VO₂ (>2 inch). Moreover, with the right choice of the metal a two-step insulator-metal-insulator phase modulation can even be achieved. An electron-proton co-doping mechanism has been proposed and verified by the first-principles calculations.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't