Asian Journal of Chemistry; Vol. 25, No. 4 (2013), 2087-2090 http://dx.doi.org/10.14233/ajchem.2013.13324 Green Synthesis of Nanolevel Polyoxometalate of Vanadium with Sulphur as Heteroatom 1 2 1,* S. HARI PRASAD , M.K. SREEDHAR and JADU SAMUEL 1Department of Chemistry, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram-695 025, India 2Department of Chemistry, University College, Thiruvananthapuram-695 034, India *Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected] (Received: 24 December 2011; Accepted: 15 October 2012) AJC-12286 Novel sulphovanadate nanospheres were prepared in a reaction of vanadium(V) oxide and an organic cationic surfactant dodecylpyridinium chloride (DPC) as structure directing template at the pH value of 3.0 under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure by applying the principles of green chemistry. The specimen was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrascopy (FT-IR), which shows that the nano material consists of S-O, V-O, V=O and S-O-V linkages. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) shows that polyoxometalate contributes 60 % by weight of the sample. The X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) shows that the particles are amorphous in nature. The high resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) analysis shows that the particles are the aggregation of particles of diameter below 10 nm. The nano scale dimension was further verified by atomic force microscopy. Key Words: Polyoxometalate, Green synthesis, Surfactant, Nanospheres. INTRODUCTION polyoxovanadates encapsulating a VO4 template with 6 {VO5} square pyramids and 14 octahedral {VO6} units. However, in 3- Polyoxometalates (POM) represent a large class of metal contrast to other molecular clusters, the [(PO4)V(V)6V(IV)12O39] oxygen cluster anions, which exhibit compositional diversity clusters are connected by 6 linear V-O-V bridges in to a 3- and structural versatility. When the particle size is reduced to dimensional frame work via the 6 {VO5} square pyramids. nanolevel the properties of the material change to remarkable Nesper and co-workers7 reported the sol-gel synthesis of extent such as conductivity, surface charge and absorption vanadium oxide nanotubes using vanadium alkoxide precursors capacity1. Nanotechnology now a day attracts great attention and primary long chain amines. Polyoxovanadate cluster based due to its tremendous applications in all areas of life2. Among solids are attractive inorganic materials due to their structural different areas of inorganic chemistry, metal oxide based versatility and potential applications in the areas of catalysis, polyoxometalate molecular clusters represent a class of inorganic magnetism, medicine etc. Muller and his groups8 assembled 3 5- 12- 9- compounds that exhibit unmatched structural versatility . An several cage like structures [V15O36] , [V18O42] , [V19O45] 10- area of intense research in polyoxometalate chemistry is the and [V34O82] in which anions are encapsulated inside the – synthesis of polyoxovanadates that are known to have attractive cavity of these spherical clusters. The sizes of the anions NO3 , – – – 2- 3- chemical and physical properties pertaining to catalysis, bio- Cl , Br , SCN , SO4 and PO4 appear to dictate the structure chemistry and material science4. Recently the focus in synthesis and geometry of these solids. has been vanadate clusters with reduced or mixed-valence Synthesis of polyoxovanadates has classically been done vanadium centers. To this avail one synthetic approach that in aqueous solutions or under hydrothermal conditions. has been adopted is one of the synergy involving the introduc- Recently new synthetic routes are being explored for the tion of organic and anion templating components. The anion formation of vanadate clusters from organic media with is typically imbedded in the vanadate cluster, which can either organically soluble vanadium precursors. One example of a be covalently or non-covalently bound to the vanadium atoms, vanadium cluster synthesized from organic solvent which has 9 5- used to generate clusters with unique topologies, as in the been reported by Hong et al. , is {V(IV)2V(V)12O36Cl} as a synthesis of Na6[(PO4)V(V)6V(IV)12O39]2.H3PO4.31H2O and tetraethylamine salt that has blue luminescence. In this reaction IV 8- + [V(V)13V3 O42(CI)] , which are examples of covalently VO2(acac) was used as a source of soluble VO2 in acetonitrile. bonded and non bonded anions respectively5,6. The anionic The cluster was then crystallized from a DMF solution with 3- cluster [(PO4)V(V)6V(IV)12O39] is similar to other molecular [Et4N]5[V(IV)2V(V)12O36Cl] being air stable in both solution 2088 Prasad et al. Asian J. Chem. and in the solid state. The cluster is built up from 14 {VO5} on carbon-coated copper grids. The analysis was done at square pyramids however, unlike other polyoxovanadate different scales as 20, 50, 100 and 200 nm. The atomic force clusters, it is an open cage with two holes in the surface remini- microscopic (AFM) study was done by dispersing the sample scent of a basket. The non bonded chloride ion occupies the in absolute alcohol and deposited on a silicon substrate using centre of the cavity, with an average vanadium-chloride distance the principle of cantilever. of 3.496 Å and may offer a path for exchange of the chloride anion with other anions. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In a broad sense green synthesis includes any chemical Successful covalent linking of S-O-V could be proven by process or technology that improves the environment and thus infrared experiments. The corresponding FT-IR spectra are 10 our quality of life . Our attempt was to synthesize the nano presented in Fig. 1. The peaks at 1171, 1125 cm-1 are assigned dimensional polyoxovanadate containing sulphur hetero atom 2- to asymmetric stretching of SO4 groups. The peaks at 1022 from aqueous solutions. Here we present the formation of nano -1 2- 13 cm represent the symmetric stretching of SO4 group . The sized inorganic polyoxovanadate clusters with spherical shape peaks at 579-529 cm-1 are assigned to the symmetric bending by applying the principles of green chemistry. 2- -1 of SO4 group. The peak 833 cm is due to S-O-V bending. The peak around 959 cm-1 is due to V=O stretch and a weak EXPERIMENTAL peak around 683 cm-1 is due to V-S-O. Two absorption bands Synthesis of nanosulphovanadate by incorporating of 2922 and 2853 cm-1 correspond to aliphatic C-H vibrations sulphate units to vanadium frame work of sodium vanadate of dodecylpyridinium chloride. The broad peak around 3439 using dodecylpyridinium chloride (DPC) as templating agent cm-1 is due to O-H stretching vibrations of adsorbed water on is investigated. All the chemicals used are of analytical reagent the surface of the powdered sample. grade and used as received without any further purification. Doubly distilled water was used throughout the experiment for the synthesis of sulphovanadate nano particles. 110110 Preparation of sulphovanadate nanospheres: %T 100 Vanadium(V) oxide was used as vanadium source. Dodecyl- 100 578.64 682.80 528.50 750.31 1371.39 pyridinium chloride was used as the structure directing 904.61 90 3888.49 90 3838.34 11,12 3734.19 1022.27 template for synthesis . Weighed amount of vanadium(V) 2763.99 3055.24 1286.52 oxide was dissolved in an aqueous solution of sodium 8080 1215.15 2351.23 1734.01 hydroxide by stirring and warming (molar ratio of NaOH/V2O5 1460.11 1170.79 ance (%) 1124.50 1589.34 1490.97 2036.83 833.25 = 2) thoroughly and it was treated as solution X, weighed 7070 1647.21 amount at dodecylpyridinium chloride was dissolved in 1.0 ransmitt T M solution of sulphuric acid (mass ratio of DPC/V2O5 = 0.25) 6060 2854.65 and it was treated as solution Y. Solution Y was added to 3439.08 2922.16 solution X with stirring. The resulting pH of the solution was 5050 found to be 3. Then the mixture is stirred continuously for 24 h. The mixture is then kept undisturbed for 48 h. It is then 4040 958.62 filtered, washed, dried and weighted. The sample was found 40004000 35003500 30003000 25002500 20002000 17501750 15001500 12501250 10001000 750750 .500500 –1 to be orange brown in colour. Wavelength (cm ) Fig. 1. FTIR Spectrum of the sample of sulphovanadate nanospheres Detection method: With the help of modern sophisticated recorded on KBr pellets and high resolution instrumental techniques, the fundamental chemistry and structure of polyoxometalate were studied. The thermal behaviour of the sample was investigated by Particle size analysis was done on a Malvern-Zetasizer Nano TGA as shown in Fig. 2.The small weight loss (< 5 %) up to ZS particle size analyzer. Submicron particle sizes are measured 523 K due to the removal at surface adsorbed water molecules. by observing the scattered light from these particles, deter- The weight loss from 523-823 K is due to the loss of DPC mining the diffusion speed and deriving the size from this using incorporated with the nanospheres. The weight loss due to the Stokes-Einstein relationship by dynamic light scattering removal of DPC is 40 %. The material is thermally stable up method. Initial studies were conducted with Scanning electron to a temperature of about 340-350 K and can be used for various microscope to measure the size and morphology of the product. processes up to that temperature. FTIR study of the sulphovanadate sample was recorded on The X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the particles KBr pellets (Shimadzu spectrophotometer). Thermal analysis are below crystalline dimension and hence amorphous in was performed on Universal V3.9A TA from 293-1263 K at a nature. The morphology of the nano particles were investi- heating rate of 10 ºC/min in nitrogen atmosphere. X-Ray gated by HRTEM analysis. (Fig. 3a-b) shows the particles diffraction (XRD) data were recorded on X'Pert Software are spherical in shape with diameter 10-100 nm and they are diffractometer by using CuKα radiation (x = 1.5418 Å).