Elsevier

Materials Letters

Volume 64, Issue 7, 15 April 2010, Pages 820-823
Materials Letters

Synthesis of ultra-long single crystalline CuV2O6 nanobelts

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2010.01.025Get rights and content

Abstract

Ultra-long single crystalline CuV2O6 nanobelts have been successfully synthesized via a facile homogeneous reaction between peroxovanadic acid and cupric acetate. The reaction parameters, such as reaction time, and with or without H2O2, have profound influences on the crystal structures and morphologies of the resulting products. The time-dependent experiments reveal that the formation of ultra-long CuV2O6 nanobelts is related to the disassembly of urchin-like Cu3(OH)2V2O7·2H2O nanostructures composed of radially aligned nanobelts, and the growth of CuV2O6 along the direction of [010]. Without the addition of H2O2 aqueous solution, wide and short CuV2O6 nanobelts coexist with some irregular particles and microrods in the products.

Introduction

Ag2V4O11 has been well investigated and used commercially as a cathode material in primary lithium batteries for application in implantable cardioverter defibrillator due to its high energy density, high power, and long-term stability [1], [2]. As a potential candidate, copper vanadate (CuV2O6) is a particularly interesting lithium batteries material due to its excellent electronic conductivities, and high Cu oxidation states, which can deliver higher discharge specific capacity and energy density than that of Ag2V4O11, however, the traditional solid-state method produces only micrometer-scale materials [3], [4], [5].

In recent years, nanostructured materials have drawn significant research interest in lithium batteries, due to their better accommodation of the strain of lithium intercalation/deintercalation improving their electrochemical stability and cycle life, new reactions not possible with their bulk counterparts, higher electrode/electrolyte contact area leading to higher charge/discharge rates, and short path lengths for Li+ transport [6], [7]. Although a variety of synthetic strategies, such as a vapor transport [8], sol-gel [9], surfactant-assisted solution synthesis [10], template-assisted synthesis [11], hydrothermal/solvothermal synthesis [12], [13], [14], [15], and precursor post-annealing synthesis [16], have been developed to fabricate one-dimensional (1D) vanadium oxide nanostructures including nanowires, nanotubes, and nanobelts, because of their potential applications in lithium batteries, field-effect transistors, and chemical sensors or actuators, the reports on the fabrication of 1D nanostructures of CuV2O6 are very sparse [17]. Belt-like 1D nanostructures of CuV2O6 remain challenging, which are expected to represent important building blocks for nanodevices [18]. Recently, peroxovanadic acid produced by the dissolution of V2O5 in the H2O2 aqueous solution have been demonstrated to be a precursor for bulk V2O5 and 1D nanostructures of V2O5 and VO2 [13], [19], [20]. Herein, we report a facile approach for the synthesis of ultra-long and uniform single crystalline CuV2O6 nanobelts by the homogeneous reaction between peroxovanadic acid and cupric acetate without the aid of any templates and surfactants. The addition of H2O2 aqueous solution plays an important role in the formation of high purity ultra-long CuV2O6 nanobelts.

Section snippets

Experimental

All reagents used in our experiment are of analytical purity and used without further purification. In a typical synthesis of CuV2O6 nanobelts, 0.27 g of commercial V2O5 was dissolved in 6 mL of 30% H2O2 aqueous solution, which was accompanied with an immediate strong exothermic reaction, and then 20 mL of deionized water was poured into the above mixture to form a bright-yellow solution. After 40 mL of 0.038 mol/L cupric acetate (Cu(Ac)2·H2O) aqueous solution was added to the bright-yellow solution

Results and discussion

Fig. 1 shows typical SEM and TEM images of CuV2O6 nanostructures synthesized at 180 °C for 24 h. Low-magnification SEM image in Fig. 1A reveals that the products consist of a large quantity of wool-like CuV2O6 nanostructures with lengths up to several tens of micrometers. Some of them are assembled together to form bundle-like structures. High-magnification SEM image (the inset in Fig. 1A) shows that the wool-like nanostructures have rectangular cross section, in correspondence to belt-like

Conclusions

In summary, we describe a facile homogeneous hydrothermal route to the synthesis of ultra-long single crystalline CuV2O6 nanobelts by the reaction between peroxovanadic acid and Cu(Ac)2 without any templates and surfactants. It is found that urchin-like Cu3(OH)2V2O7·2H2O nanostructures are intermediate products for the formation of ultra-long CuV2O6 nanobelts with a preferential growth direction along the [010] direction. The ultra-long belt-like CuV2O6 nanostructures may have potential

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 50702028).

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