Precipitation stripping of V(V) as a novel approach for the preparation of transition metal vanadates

Transition metal vanadates, and particularly copper vanadates (CVO), have shown potential in applications as sensors, in photocatalysis, and recently, because of their high theoretical capacity, safety, easy preparation, and low cost, as electrode materials for primary and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). During discharge, the Cu2+ is reduced, and, more than one lithium ion per vanadium react, giving a high theoretical discharge capacity. Motivated by this relevant application, much research work has been done on the synthesis and electrochemical studies of various 1D transition metal vanadates. Among them, particularly Cu3V2O7(OH)2.2H2O has been studied as an electrode for primary lithium batteries with a high storage capacity. CVO and other metal vanadates are normally synthesized by hydrothermal methods at high temperatures and pressures, making the synthesis expensive, and the control of the microstructure and composition difficult to achieve.
An interesting modification of the conventional solvent extraction process is the addition of a crystallization operation, where low-solubility metal salts such as oxalates, oxides, or sulfides can be precipitated (precipitation stripping). In this work, copper vanadate nanoparticles have been synthesized by a simple synthetic route by solvent extraction and precipitation stripping. The extraction was carried out by ion exchange using a 20% (v/v) Aliquat 336 solution in n-octanol/kerosene as extractant, and an alkaline aqueous solution (0.1 M NaOH) prepared using vanadium pentoxide (V(V) concentration 2 g/L). Precipitation stripping was carried out using copper sulphate (0.01, 0.05 and 1 mol/L) dissolved in a concentrated chloride solution (4 mol/L). For some experiments, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP, Sigma Aldrich, ~44,000 g/mol) was used as stabilizer in order to avoid agglomeration and control growth. The prepared materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). The obtained diffractograms could be indexed to the Cu3V2O7(OH)2.2H2O phase, space group: C2/m(12), JCPDS Card No. 46-1443, corresponding to volborthite, an uncommon secondary mineral formed in the oxidized zone of vanadium-bearing hydrothermal mineral deposits, monoclinic or pseudohexagonal and forms normally rosette-like aggregates of scaly crystals. The copper vanadate particles are nanometrical in size, with morphologies varying from nanowires to spherical particles (in presence of PVP)