Polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid hierarchical architectures assembled from nanoscale building blocks by homogeneous polymerization

BACKGROUND: Polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid materials have been much researched due to their potential applications in lithium batteries. Although many methods have been reported for the fabrication of conventional polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid materials by in situ oxidative polymerization/intercalation of aniline in V₂O₅ and by layer‐by‐layer approaches, studies on polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid nanostructures have been rare. RESULTS: Polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid hierarchical architectures assembled from nanoscale building blocks, such as nanoplates and nanobelts, have been synthesized by a one‐step hydrothermal homogeneous reaction between aniline and peroxovanadic acid without the aid of any surfactant or template. The influences of synthesis parameters, i.e. reaction time, temperature and medium, on the morphologies of the polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid nanostructures have been investigated. With increasing reaction time/temperature, the alignment of nanoplates in the hierarchical architectures becomes gradually dense. CONCLUSION: The formation mechanism of the polyaniline–vanadium oxide hybrid hierarchical architectures involves a one‐step precipitation–polymerization–assembly process. The method may be applicable for the synthesis of other conducting polymer–vanadium oxide hybrid nanostructures. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry