Hydrothermal preparation of long nanowires of vanadium oxide

Long beltlike nanowires were successfully synthesized for a semiconducting oxide of vanadium by a hydrothermal route at 180 °C for 5 h and were characterized by x-ray powder diffraction, energy dispersive -ray spectroscopy, and electron diffraction microscopy. The product is mainly layered V₂O₅ · 0.3H₂O with a small fraction of V₂O₅ · xH₂O (0.3 < x < 1.7) and V₂O₅ phases. The obtained nanowires, several tens of micrometers long and a few of tens of nanometers wide, are crystallized well, growing along the [010] direction. The effects of preparation conditions on the formation of the nanowires are discussed.