Vanadium oxide-based compounds have received considerable attention owing to their outstanding physical and chemical characters which originated from their diversified crystal structures, the various valance states of the vanadium in the compound, and the different V-O coordination spheres. Consequently, they find extensive industrial applications including phosphors, gas sensors, catalysis, rechargeable batteries, and also in electrochemical devices. A prominent example is that MgV₂O₆ with brannerite structure shows a high charge capacity when used as anode material for lithium ion rechargeable batteries. The synthesis method and phy-chemical properties have been well investigated at ambient condition. However, the structural stability and the coordination change of vanadium in MgV₂O₆ under high pressure have not been studied. Two teams from State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials of Jilin University and Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research have gained insight into the structure transformation, the coordination change of vanadium, and electrical transport property under high pressure. Their research has been published on December 7^th, 2016 in Scientific Reports.

Figure 1. Selected high pressure ADXRD patterns of MgV₂O₆. Insert shows the appearance of the new peaks.