Room temperature synthesis and high temperature frictional study of silver vanadate nanorods

We report the room temperature (RT) synthesis of silver vanadate nanorods (consisting of mainly β-AgVO₃) by a simple wet chemical route and their frictional study at high temperatures (HT). The sudden mixing of ammonium vanadate with silver nitrate solution under constant magnetic stirring resulted in a pale yellow coloured precipitate. Structural/microstructural characterization of the precipitate through x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the high yield and homogeneous formation of silver vanadate nanorods. The length of the nanorods was 20-40 μm and the thickness 100-600 nm. The pH variation with respect to time was thoroughly studied to understand the formation mechanism of the silver vanadate nanorods. This synthesis process neither demands HT, surfactants nor long reaction time. The silver vanadate nanomaterial showed good lubrication behaviour at HT (700 °C) and the friction coefficient was between 0.2 and 0.3. HT-XRD revealed that AgVO₃ completely transformed into silver vanadium oxide (Ag₂V ₄O₁₁) and silver with an increase in temperature from RT to 700 °C.