Amorphous intermediates and discovery of a kinetic polymorph of BiVO4 from heating V plus Bi plus Zn single-source precursors
Journal article, 2026
Molecular single-source precursors are a promising way of obtaining multi-element extended solids directly. We show that thermal decomposition of well-defined mono-, bi- and trimetallic polyoxovanadates (POVs) proceeds through a series of intermediate amorphous and crystalline species which we characterise using solid-state NMR spectroscopy, pair-distribution function (PDF) analysis and in-situ X-ray diffraction, before forming crystalline V2O5 and BiVO4 products. This synthetic strategy enables the formation of phases inaccessible using other routes, including a previously unknown polymorph of BiVO4 which we name beta-BiVO4 due to its similarity to beta-SnWO4. Local structure information also reveals the temperature dependent incorporation of Zn do pants into BiVO4. The study also explores the electrochemical properties of amorphous mixed-valence vanadium oxides as Li-ion battery electrodes. We suggest that careful analysis of the thermal decomposition of molecular species may be a way of obtaining hitherto unknown kinetically stabilised polymorphs and amorphous variants of extended solids.
Author
Alexandria E. Hands
The University of Warwick
Thomas J. Barnes
The University of Warwick
Andrea Scarperi
University of Pisa
University of Birmingham
Benjamin M. Gallant
University of Birmingham
Emanuele Vismara
The University of Warwick
Julia Wiktor
Chalmers, Physics, Condensed Matter and Materials Theory
Stephen E. Brown
The University of Warwick
David Walker
The University of Warwick
Ashok S. Menon
The University of Warwick
Javier Castells-Gil
University of Birmingham
Dominik J. Kubicki
University of Birmingham
Sebastian D. Pike
The University of Warwick
Nature Communications
2041-1723 (ISSN) 20411723 (eISSN)
Vol. 17 1 3739Harnessing Localized Charges for Advancing Polar Materials Engineering (POLARISE)
European Commission (EC) (EC/HE/101162195), 2025-01-01 -- 2029-12-31.
Ab Initio Description of Complete Semiconductor Devices
Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (FFL21-0129), 2022-08-01 -- 2027-12-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Theoretical Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Physical Chemistry
Infrastructure
Chalmers e-Commons (incl. C3SE, 2020-)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-026-71702-7
PubMed
42062268