A facile surfactant-free method to the synthesis of tip-ended VO2 nanorods in high yield

A facile surfactant-free route was reported for the synthesis of novel tip-ended B phase VO2 nanorods in high yield. These nanorods, with the growth orientation along the [001] direction, had average diameters of about 100 nm and 3-5 μm in length. A new cracking-crystallization mechanism was proposed for the formation of the nanorods based on time-dependent transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies of the product evolution. Electrochemical test results showed thus-prepared nanorods of VO2 (B) delivered the specific discharge capacity as high as 320 mAh⋅g−1.