Synthesis and characterization of V2O3 microcrystal particles controlled by thermodynamic parameters.

A facile process is developed for the synthesis of pure vanadium(III) oxide by thermal reduction of vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) in ammonia gas. The process of thermal reduction of V2O5 was optimized by experiments and by modeling of thermodynamic parameters. The obtained V2O3 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The experimental results indicated that crystal particles of pure V2O3 were successfully synthesized within a short reaction period of 1 h and at a relatively low temperature of 903 K. The content of V2O3 in the product sample higher than 99 wt. %. The grain size of V2O3 ranged from several hundred nanometers to several micrometers. The morphologies of the V2O3 particles were micrometer layers in nanometer sheet structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]