Highly crystalline α-V2O5 thin film nanostructures with a single phase exhibiting higher mobility were prepared by the EB-PVD technique.

Sol-gel is a low temperature, highly controllable and cost effective method for production of homogeneous, highly stoichiometric and high quality ultrafine nanostructures. Sol-gel route is adoptable way to choose desired shape of the metal oxide (MO) nanostructures such as nanospheres, nanorods, nanoflakes, nanotubes, nanoribbons, nanospheres and nanofibers for shape-dependent applications and comparative accessibility. Biomedical applications involving drug deliveries, mimicking of natural bone and teeth, antimicrobial activities and pharmaceuticals employ sol-gel prepared MO nanostructures because of their low temperature synthesis, homogeneity and purity. Apart from this, sol-gel route is preferred for synthesis of MO-based nanostructures with several ranges of applications such as magnetic applications, energy generation, conversion and storage devices, electronic device applications and sensors and actuators materials. In this chapter, we have discussed about the comprehensive ideas of sol-gel technique to synthesis metal oxide nanostructures.

The proposed work is focused on the effect of substrates on the electrocatalytic performance of physical vapor deposited vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) films.