en.Wedoany.com Reported - A joint team from the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham has discovered a series of previously unknown "hidden" intermediate phases during the material formation process. Among them, a new form of bismuth vanadate (β-BiVO4) exhibits significantly different bandgap characteristics, potentially offering new ideas for clean energy and advanced battery technologies. The related findings were published in Nature Communications.
Traditional material synthesis research mostly focuses on the starting materials and the final product of the heating process, whereas this study concentrates on the brief and unstable transition stages between them. Dr. Sebastian Pike from the University of Warwick's Department of Chemistry stated that these overlooked intermediate states themselves may possess practical value, and the team identified potential application prospects in some of these phases from the very first experiments.
To capture these hidden intermediate phases, the researchers used specially designed "single-source precursors"—molecules that already contain all the elements required to form the target material. By combining techniques such as solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and pair distribution function analysis, the team tracked the structural evolution of the precursor during heating and discovered multiple material phases not previously reported. Among them, the newly discovered β-BiVO4 has a different atomic arrangement compared to known variants, with a significantly larger bandgap, leading to altered interaction modes with light. Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) is considered a key material for solar fuel production due to its suitable bandgap and can be used for photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen.
Beyond the solar energy field, another intermediate phase discovered in the experiment showed high lithium storage capacity, suggesting its potential use in next-generation lithium battery technology. Dr. Dominik Kubicki from the University of Birmingham's School of Chemistry pointed out that these "intermediate" materials are not just stepping stones to forming the final product; they may possess unique functions in their own right.
The research further indicates that the type of precursor and its thermal decomposition pathway significantly influence the final material structure. By controlling temperature and reaction conditions, structures that are difficult to obtain through conventional heating methods can be fabricated. Dr. Sebastian Pike concluded that this work reveals a broader exploration space in materials science—fine-tuning of temperature, precursor chemistry, and reaction pathways is expected to uncover more "hidden" yet highly practical materials.
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