Synthesis and Electrical Transport of Single-Crystal NH4V3O8 Nanobelts

Monoclinic NH4V3O8 single-crystalline nanobelts with widths of 80−180 nm, thicknesses of 50−100 nm, and lengths up to tens of micrometers have been synthesized at large scale in an ammonium metavanadate solution by a templates/catalysts-free route. Such nanobelts grow along the direction of [010]. The individual NH4V3O8 nanobelt exhibits nonlinear, symmetric current/voltage (I/V) characteristics, with a conductivity of 0.1−1 S/cm at room temperature and a dielectric constant of ∼130. The dominant conduction mechanism is based on small polaron hopping due to ohmic mechanism at low electric field below 249 V/cm due to Schottky emission at medium electric field between 249 and 600 V/cm and due to the Poole−Frenkel emission mechanism at high field above 600 V/cm.