Microwave-synthesized V2O5 nanoparticles for ammonia sensing at room temperature

•V2O5 nanomaterials can be synthesized in 5 min, impurity-free.•Synthesized V2O5 nanoparticles can detect 1 ppm NH3 at room temperature.•The sensor’s response is not affected by humidity. We introduce a process for synthesizing V2O5 nano particles directly from vanadium powder using a microwave oven in just 5 min. These nanoparticles are oval-shaped with an average diameter of 9 nm. These V2O5 nanoparticles are capable of detecting 1 ppm NH3 at room temperature with the response of 1.16 and the response/recovery times of 15 s and 326 s, respectively. Notably, the NH3 sensing characteristics of these V2O5 nanoparticles are almost unaffected by the humidity in the air and remain unchanged after at least 60 days of measurement. Therefore, V2O5 nanoparticles synthesized using microwave techniques are a material with great potential for application as low-energy NH3 sensors.