Hydrothermal route to VO2 (B) nanorods: controlled synthesis and characterization

One-dimensional vanadium dioxides have attracted intensive attention owing to their distinctive structure and novel applications in catalysis, high energy lithium-ion batteries, chemical sensors/actuators and electrochemical devices etc. In this paper, large-scale VO₂ (B) nanorods have been successfully synthesized via a versatile and environment friendly hydrothermal strategy using V₂O₅ as vanadium source and carbohydrates/alcohols as reductant. The obtained samples are characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TEM, and XPS techniques to investigate the effects of chemical parameters such as reductants, temperature, and time of synthesis on the structure and morphology of products. Results show that pure B phase VO₂ with homogeneous nanorod-like morphology can be prepared easily at 180 °C for 3 days with glycerol as reluctant. Typically, the nanorod-like products are 0.5–1 μm long and 50 nm width. Furthermore, it is also confirmed that the products are consisted of VO₂, corresponding to the B phase. More importantly, this novel approach is efficient, free of any harmful solvents and surfactants. Therefore, this efficient, green, and cost-saving route will have great potential in the large-scale fabrication of 1D VO₂ (B) nanorods from the economic and environmental point of view.