Spontaneous and self-assembled line formations on silicon substrates with vanadium pentoxide sol-gels

A simple one-pot method has been developed to deposit discreet nanometer line formations on silicon substrates without any surface pretreatment starting with vanadium pentoxide sol-gels. These vanadium suspensions were made by hydrolyzing amorphous V2O5 in water. The properties of the vanadium clusters were determined through X-ray diffraction, elemental analyses, pH calculations, and concentration calculations. Morphology of the lines was examined with optical microscopy, atomic force microcoscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Infrared spectroscopy was used to inspect the organic components. The vanadium sol-gel used formed discreet and regular lines with high reproducibility and on the same order of magnitude as other patterning techniques. Previous research with a low solubility, 8 g/L, metal oxide for line, ring, or helix formation has not been found in the literature; this work could lead to novel applications of metal oxides such as porous catalysts, battery materials, and resistive electronic materials.