Comparison of vanadium oxide thin films deposited from commercial and solution combustion synthesised powders

In the present work, V₂O₅ thin films were fabricated with both commercial and solution combustion synthesised V₂O₅ resorting to a single spin coating sol–gel deposition. Structural and morphological properties of V₂O₅ powder were investigated first, subsequently followed by a detailed investigation of the optical and electrochemical properties of thin films. The film, which was coated from as-synthetised powder onto corning substrate had a transparency of greater than 85% in the visible region for sol–gels exhibited absorption edges at ∼380 nm. The optical band-gap energy was evaluated to be 2.7 eV, while the coloration efficiency of this film was found to be 36.8 cm²C⁻¹. The film thickness range of 100–300 nm was demonstrated in 1-layer. The main properties of the afore discussed thin films provide further encouragement for application in future nanoscale (opto-) electronic devices as they are reproducible, cost-effective, and quick to fabricate.