Formation of Novel Bimetal Oxide In₂V₂O₇ through a Shock Compression Method

Bimetal oxides with a chemical formula of A₂B₂O₇ have received much attention from plenty of research groups owing to their outstanding properties, such as electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Among the abundant element combinations of cations A and B, some theoretically predicted compounds have not successfully been synthesized in experiments, such as In₂Zr₂O₇, In₂V₂O₇, etc. In this study, a novel tetragonal pyrochlore-like In₂V₂O₇ nanopowder has been reported for the first time. In₂O₃ and VO₂ powders mixed through ball milling were reacted to form In₂V₂O₇ by shockwave loading. The recovered sample is investigated to be nanocrystalline In₂V₂O₇ powder through various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy spectrum analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. The formed In₂V₂O₇ is indexed as a tetragonal cell with a = b = 0.7417 nm and c = 2.1035 nm. Moreover, the formation mechanism of In₂V₂O₇ through a shock synthesis process is carefully analyzed based on basic laws of shockwave. The experimental results also confirm that a high shock temperature and high shock pressure are the two key factors to synthesize the In₂V₂O₇ nanopowder. Our investigation demonstrates the high potential application of a shock-induced reaction on the synthesis of novel materials, including the preparation of new bimetal oxides.