Synthesis of electrochromic vanadium oxide by pulsed spray pyrolysis technique and its properties

A new improved pulsed spray pyrolysis technique (PSPT) was employed to deposit a vanadium oxide (V2O5) thin film from a methanolic vanadium chloride precursor onto glass and conducting F : SnO2 coated glass substrates. The structural, morphological, electrical, optical and spectroscopic properties of the film deposited at 573 K were studied. Infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction confirmed the presence of the V2O5 phase. The V2O5 film (thickness ∼118 nm) is polycrystalline with a tetragonal crystal structure. Scanning electron microscopy reveals compact granular morphology consisting of ∼80–100 nm size grains. The film is transparent in the visible region (average %T ∼70%) with an optical band gap energy of 2.47 eV involving both direct and indirect optical transitions. The room temperature electrical resistivity (conductivity) of the film is 1.6 × 108 Ω cm (6.25 × 10−9 S cm−1) with an activation energy of 0.67 eV in the temperature range 300–550 K. It exhibited cathodic electrochromism in the lithium containing electrolyte (0.5 M LiClO4 + propylene carbonate).