Formation of Novel Bimetal Oxide In₂V₂O₇ through a Shock Compression Method

Abstract

Bimetal oxides with a chemical formula of A 2 B 2 O 7 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 In 2 Zr 2 O 7 , In 2 V 2 O 7 , etc. In this study, a novel tetragonal pyrochlore-like In 2 V 2 O 7 nanopowder has been reported for the first time. In 2 O 3 and VO 2 powders mixed through ball milling were reacted to form In 2 V 2 O 7 by shockwave loading. The recovered sample is investigated to be nanocrystalline In 2 V 2 O 7 powder through various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy spectrum analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. The formed In 2 V 2 O 7 is indexed as a tetragonal cell with a = b = 0.7417 nm and c = 2.1035 nm. Moreover, the formation mechanism of In 2 V 2 O 7 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 In 2 V 2 O 7 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.