Multifold stiffness and fracture toughness enhancement in W‐doped VO2 microcrystals

Abstract Vanadium dioxide is popular for the metal‐insulator phase transition at 68°C. Chemical doping is one of the effective ways adopted to tune the phase transition temperature, where tungsten is known to reduce the transition temperature of VO 2 . This work investigates the effect of tungsten doping on the mechanical properties of VO 2 microcrystals and their polymer composites. Doping of VO 2 with W shows a systematic reduction in phase transition temperature up to 33°C for 4 wt% W‐doped VO 2 . For 3 wt% W‐doped VO 2 , the elastic modulus values enhance by 50%. The fracture toughness of 3 wt% W‐doped VO 2 shows an enhancement of fourfold compared to the undoped VO 2 . The dynamic compressive strength of 3 wt% W‐doped VO 2 –UHMWPE polymer composite at room temperature is found to be 7% higher than the undoped VO 2 —composite.