VO 2 with high valence metal cations. [17][18][19][20][21] Tungsten (W 6+ ) cations have been found to be the most efficient dopants for lowering τ c at a rate of ≈20-28 K per at%. [22] In the past, high temperature evaporation, [23][24][25][26] sol-gel methods, [27] and magnetron sputtering [28] have been used to fabricate nanostructured VO 2 materials using complex equipment. In contrast, hydrothermal synthesis is an alternative facile method to prepare nanostructured metal oxides at relatively low temperatures (<300 °C), owing to the increased solubility of oxides in hot water under a high autogenous vapor pressure. [29] Nanostructured VO 2 materials, including nanopowders [30,31] and nanoasterisks, [33] have been synthesized under hydrothermal conditions below 300 °C with polycrystalline characteristics, complicating studies of the single-domain metal-insulator phase transition. Hydrothermally synthesized nanorods [32] have previously been reported to be micron-sized or larger in length, limiting their use in smart applications. To the best of our knowledge, there is still no report of the hydrothermal synthesis and investigation of uniform single-crystalline W-doped VO 2 nanobeams that are below 100 nm in width and 500 nm in length, although high temperature evaporation has been used to fabricate similar structures. [34] In this paper, we report a simple hydrothermal process to synthesize W-doped single-crystalline VO 2 nanobeams and propose a rolling mechanism to explain their structural evolution from the starting 2D V 2 O 2 -H 2 O 2 layered material to vanadium oxide nanowires/nanobeams and nanopowders. A uniform distribution of W dopants in the VO 2 nanobeams results in a high doping efficiency and a unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The SPR is favored in thermochromic smart window applications to enhance their solar modulation ability ΔT sol (defined as the solar transmission difference above and below τ c ). It occurs only in the metallic state of VO 2 , leading to enhanced absorption at high temperature and consequently reducing transmission above τ c without compromising the transmission in the insulating state below τ c .
Results and DiscussionN 2 H 4 ·H 2 O is an effective reagent to synthesize VO 2 by reducing the V 2 O 5 starting material (2V 2 O 5 +N 2 H 4 ·H 2 O→4VO 2 +N 2 +3H 2 O). [35] However, residual H 2 O 2 in the Single-crystalline vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) nanostructures are of great interest because of their single-domain metal-to-insulator transition. In this paper, singlecrystalline W-doped VO 2 nanobeams are synthesized for optical and electrical applications. As a result of differences in the polarization of the beams along their transverse and longitudinal axes, dual-surface plasmon resonance peaks at 1344 and 619 nm are generated, resulting in an increase in the solar modulating abilities of the VO 2 nanobeams. The conductivity of the single-crystalline W-doped VO 2 nanobeams changes by three to four orders of magnitude at the transition temperature, which is of great import...