Hydrothermal synthesis of vanadium oxide nanotubes by a facile route

Vanadium oxide nanotubes were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment from V2O5·nH2O sols as precursor and dodecylamine as structure-directing template. The morphology and structure of the nanotubes were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, TG-DTA and FTIR. The experimental results reveal that the duration of the hydrothermal treatment is of importance for obtaining VOx-NTs which have a layered structure. TG-DTA study indicates that V5+ cations in nanotubes are partially reduced to V4+ cations. The results from FTIR spectra indicate the difference in V-O vibrations between before and after hydrothermal treatment. From the results, it suggests that during hydrothermal treatment, the rearrangement of the vanadium oxide structure leads to the formation of VOx nanotubes from lamellar structure because of the presence of V4+ species.