Hydrothermal Synthesis of Monoclinic VO Microparticles without Use of Hazardous Reagents: A Key Role for the W-Dopant.

Monoclinic vanadium dioxide (VO (M)) is a promising material for various applications ranging from sensing to signature management and smart windows. Most applications rely on its reversible structural phase transition to rutile VO (VO (R)), which is accompanied by a metal-to-insulator transition. Bottom-up hydrothermal synthesis has proven to yield high quality monoclinic VO but requires toxic and highly reactive reducing agents that cannot be used outside of a research lab.