Synthesis of Vanadium Oxide Nanofibers with Variable Crystallinity and V5+/V4+ Ratios

ACS Omega. 2017 Nov 9;2(11):7739-7745. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b01061. eCollection 2017 Nov 30.

Abstract

Tailoring the morphological, chemical, and physical properties of vanadium oxides (VOx) is crucial to optimize their performance in current and future applications. The present contribution proposes a new route to obtain VOx nanofibers with different V4+/V5+ ratios and crystallinity. The method involves the exclusive electrospinning of water-free NH4VO3-saturated solutions including a reductant. Subsequent air-annealing under suitable conditions yields vanadium oxide fibers of 20-90 nm diameter and 10-50 m2/g surface area. The presence of the reductant gives rise to VOx nanofibers with a considerable proportion of V4+. Then, the right choice of the calcination heating rate and temperature permits to modify the V4+/V5+ ratio as well as the crystalline phase and crystallite size of the fibers. With the proposed methodology, long-range continuous single-phase orthorhombic V2O5 and monoclinic V3O7 nanofibers are obtained.