| Abstract Scope |
In this talk, I will present rapid synthetic strategies using microwave assisted heating for vanadium dioxide, a thermochromic material possessing a metal-insulator transition temperature at 68℃. For smart windows applications, VO2 is attractive due to its semiconducting to metallic phase transition near room temperature. Below the transition temperature, it is transparent in the near-infrared, and above the transition temperature, it is translucent to near-infrared. I will include a comparison of slow furnace growth and phase-pure synthesis of VO2 and substituted VO2 via accelerated microwave-assisted heating. In-situ X-ray scattering through the phase transition reveal heating and inhomogeneities in substituted VO2 synthesized via microwave-assisted heating. The use of X-ray pair distribution functions allows us to track local structure changes due to defects that lower the metal-to-insulator transition temperature as a function of substitution concentration. I will also present challenges with cross-correlative, multi-modal characterization approaches between in-situ X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy. |