Synthesis and characterization of copper vanadate nanostructures via electrochemistry assisted laser ablation in liquid and the optical multi-absorptions performance

Transition metal vanadates MxVyOn (M = Cu, Ag, Zn, Co, Mo) have been studied extensively due to their fascinating structures and electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Scientists have thus developed many methods for the synthesis of the nanostructures of these materials in recent years. However, these techniques have many visible flaws, e. g. high temperature or high pressure environment, various templates or additives, demanding complicated synthetic procedures, impurities in final products, and so on. In this contribution, we develop a facile synthesis for fabricating transition metal vanadates nanostructures, i.e., the electrochemistry assisted laser ablation in liquid (ECLAL). This is a green, simple, and catalyst-free approach under an ambient environment. Using ECLAL, we have synthesized copper vanadate nanostructures with various phases, and characterized the morphology and structure of the as-synthesized products by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy. Additionally, we have measured the optical multi-absorption properties of the as-synthesized products by a UV-vis spectrophotometer, which was attributed to the co-existing behavior of various phases in the as-synthesized nanostructures. The physical and chemical mechanisms of the synthesis of the copper vanadate nanostructures were pursued upon ECLAL.