The metal-insulator transition in V2O4.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Lee, Jong-Gyu; Greenblatt, Martha
- Source
- Journal of Chemical Education; May 1994, Vol. 71, p375-380, 6p
- Subject
- Oxides
Electric insulators & insulation
Electric conductivity
Vanadium oxide
Metal-insulator transitions
Electrometallurgy
- Language
- ISSN
- 00219584
The metal–insulator (MI) transition of polycrystalline and single-crystal samples of V2O4 was examined. This transition refers to the change in a substance's conducting characteristics in response to an external parameter. A powder X-ray diffraction study revealed that the patterns of both samples were identical and in good agreement with the diffraction pattern reported for monoclinic V2O4. Electrical resistivity measurements were also conducted on the samples from 300–360 K, and an MI transition at about 340 K was observed for both specimens. However, the transition from single-crystal V2O4 was much sharper than that from polycrystalline V2O4. This difference was attributed to the dependence of the transition on the orientation of the crystal, which was random for the polycrystalline sample and resulted in a broader transition.