Suppression of Photoinduced Surface Oxidation of Vanadium Dioxide Nanostructures by Blocking Oxygen Adsorption

Controlling the surface is necessary to adjust the essential properties and desired functions of nanomaterials and devices. For nanostructured multivalent vanadium oxides, unwanted surface oxidation occurs at ambient atmosphere generally and needs to be suppressed or avoided. We describe the suppressed surface oxidation of VO₂ nanostructures through blocking oxygen adsorption. During an enhanced photoinduced surface oxidation process, the increased oxidation states of vanadium in VO₂ nanostructures are suppressed by the use of an inert atmosphere or coating. Intermediate oxidation states are observed, and an ALD-TiO₂ coating has a good antioxidant capacity for preventing the formation of oxygen-enriched components. Such oxidation suppression is beneficial to improving the stability of VO₂ nanostructures. Controllable surface oxidation helps us to understand the physical essentials of surface chemical reactions and achieve better control of surface functions and performances on correlated vanadium oxide nanostructures.