Percolation network of growing V2O5 nanowires

Percolation network of the growing V2O5 nanowires was demonstrated by devising a simple but practical method to investigate the percolation phenomena. As the reaction proceeded in the ammonium(meta)vanadate solution at room temperature, the lengths of V2O5 nanowires increased at a speed of 0.13 mum/day at an early stage of the growth and 0.03 mum/day on the average up to 3 months. Percolation network was made by abruptly freezing the homogeneously dispersed aqueous solutions of V2O5 nanowires in liquid nitrogen. After 7 h of aging time, an abrupt increase of the conductance was observed, revealing the satisfaction of the percolation threshold (p(c)similar to0.17) at the average wire length of 40 nm. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.