Synthetic Potassium Vanadium Oxide K 2 V 6 O 16 ·1.5H 2 O Superlong Nanobelts: A 1D Room‐Temperature Ferromagnetic Semiconductor

Abstract

Room-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors (FSC) have attracted great interests and, in particular, their 1D nanostructures with the inherent high aspect ratio give them a unique advantage in establishing nanoscale spintronic devices. Herein, a facile hydrothermal approach has been developed to synthesise K2V6O16·1.5H2O superlong nanobelts, which were confirmed to be a new kind of room-temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors with a 1D nanostructure. The FSC material has a band gap of 1.95 eV and a coercivity of 67 Oe at 300 K, showing fascinating ferromagnetic behaviour in the semiconducting material. The formation mechanism of the K2V6O16·1.5H2O nanobelts was atomically known from the full embodiments of the internal bronze K2V6O16·1.5H2O structure. Moreover, density functional calculations and the corresponding experimental results clearly reveal the nature of the ferromagnetic behaviour, and we found that the oxygen vacancies produced during the solution growth process generate the spin orientations forming the room-temperature ferromagnetism. We believe these insights give a better understanding of the ferromagnetic mechanism in RTFM materials, and such superlong nanobelts pave a new way for fabricating fascinating spintronic nanodevices and nanosensors in the near future.