Surprising structural change in metal oxide at low temperature could solve 60-year-old mystery
February 9, 2022
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Alabama and the University of California at Los Angeles have made a surprising discovery: by adding molybdenum to vanadium dioxide (VO2), its metal to insulator (MIT) transition became much less pronounced, and the temperature at which it occurred dropped. VO2’s MIT was discovered in 1959 and is one of the few materials that undergoes this transition close to room temperature - highly desirable for practical applications. Scientists hope to use this transition for many potential applications, including low-power electronics, specialized devices for monitoring temperature change in industrial settings, and smart windows/smart glass.