Hybrid materials based on vanadium pentoxide intercalation complexes

Neutral macrocyclic compounds (crown ethers and cryptands) and charged mole cular species (alkylammonium iodides) were intercalated into vanadium oxide xerogel (V2O5 . nH(2)O) to study their influence on the electrical behavio ur of this inorganic 2D host lattice. Treatment with alkyl or arylammonium iodide solutions produced the intercalation of organic cations accompanied by the reduction of a fraction of V (V) to V (IV). Characterisation by diff erent techniques allowed the postulation of the interlayer arrangement of t he guest species. The study of electrical behaviour at different temperatur es indicated that the properties of the hybrid materials can be mainly rela ted to the nature of guest species, the degree of host lattice reduction, t he interlayer water content, and the presence of metal ions deliberately in troduced in the system.