Reaction-crystallization growth and electrical property of ammonium decavanadate nanorods

Ammonium decavanadate single crystalline nanorods with an average diameter of 100 nm, length up to 5 μm, was synthesized at a large scale in an ammonium metavanadate solution by a direct reaction-crystallization growth route. Investigations were conducted by XRD, DSC/TG, Raman, SEM, EDS, TEM, SAED and electrical transport along single nanorod. The results show that ammonium decavanadate nanorods grow along the direction of [1–21]. The individual nanorod exhibits nonlinear current/voltage (I/V) characteristics, with a conductivity of 0.15 S/cm at room temperature. The dominant conduction mechanism is based on small polaron hopping between V5+ and V4+ impurity centers and the I–V curve consists of a linear, Ohmic regime at lower electrical field and a nonlinear one at higher electrical field.