Formation of Novel Bimetal Oxide In2V2O7 through a Shock Compression Method.

Abstract

Bimetal oxides with a chemical formula of A2B2O7 have received much attention from plenty of research groups owing to their outstanding properties, such as electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Among the abundant element combinations of cations A and B, some theoretically predicted compounds have not successfully been synthesized in experiments, such as In2Zr2O7, In2V2O7, etc. In this study, a novel tetragonal pyrochlore-like In2V2O7 nanopowder has been reported for the first time. In2O3 and VO2 powders mixed through ball milling were reacted to form In2V2O7 by shockwave loading. The recovered sample is investigated to be nanocrystalline In2V2O7 powder through various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy spectrum analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. The formed In2V2O7 is indexed as a tetragonal cell with a = b = 0.7417 nm and c = 2.1035 nm. Moreover, the formation mechanism of In2V2O7 through a shock synthesis process is carefully analyzed based on basic laws of shockwave. The experimental results also confirm that a high shock temperature and high shock pressure are the two key factors to synthesize the In2V2O7 nanopowder. Our investigation demonstrates the high potential application of a shock-induced reaction on the synthesis of novel materials, including the preparation of new bimetal oxides.