Reductive mineralization of cellulose with vanadium, iron and tungsten chlorides and access to M_xO_y metal oxides and M_xO_y/C metal oxide/carbon composites

M_xO_y and M_xO_y/C composites (M=V, Fe and W) were obtained by mineralization of cellulose with several metal chlorides. Cellulose was used both as a templating agent and as an oxygen and a carbon source. Soluble chloride molecules (VOCl₃ and WCl₆) and a poorly soluble ionic chloride compound (FeCl₃) were chosen as metal oxide precursors. In a first time, primary metal oxide/cellulose composites were obtained via a thermal treatment by reacting urea impregnated filter paper with the corresponding metal chlorides in an autoclave at 150°C after 3days. After either pyrolysis or calcination steps of these intermediate materials, interesting metal oxides with various morphologies were obtained (V₂O_5, V₂O₃, Fe₃O₄, WO_3, H_0.23WO₃), composites (V₂O₃/C) as well as carbides (hexagonal W₂C and WC, Fe₃C) This result highlight the reductive role that can play cellulose during the pyrolysis step that allows to tune the composition of M_xO_y/C composites. The materials were characterized by FTIR, Raman, TGA, XRD and SEM. This study highlights that cellulose can be used for a convenient preparation of a variety of highly demanded M_xO_y and M_xO_y/C composites with original shapes and morphologies.