Synchrotron light scattering on nanostructured V/Ce oxide films intercalated with Li+ ions

Vanadium oxide and new V/Ce oxide films on a glass substrate were obtained by the sol-gel process. The morphology of these nanostructured and porous films was studied by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) at the ELETTRA synchrotron (Italy, Trieste). The aim of performing GISAXS was to study changes, which might occur in the grain sizes and the porosity of vanadium oxide and V/Ce oxide at 38 and 55 atom % of V, upon the intercalation of Li+ ions. The average grain radius obtained by GISAXS varied with the layer thickness and upon the intercalation of Li+ ions. The layer structure in V/Ce oxides was revealed by the grazing-incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXR) method. The average grain radius , obtained by GISAXS, was correlated with the intercalation of Li+ ions. The specific surface area of these films was also determined and generally varied from 0.5 nm(-1) to 0.03 nm(-1).