A Crystalline Material Made from Oxidation of Vanadium Nitride via Foam Route

Facile method of synthesizing organic-inorganic solid foam in complex structure is presented. The synthesis method is based on the use of neutral surfactant (1-hexadecylamine, C16H33NH2) as structure directing agent and inorganic salt (vanadium nitride, VN) as precursor. The foam containing C16H33NH2 has been synthesized by evolution of oxygen gas produced spontaneously from hydrogen peroxide through a viscous VN gel. The foam from the precursor of 0.5 gVN nanopowder grows gradually, reaching about 0.3 liters 10 minutes after excess addition of H2O2 and stirring. The ultralight, crystalline material made via foam processing was observed by XRD, SEM, TEM, and FTIR.