A novel and convenient reduction-hydrolysis method was developed to make high-purity VO2 nanopowders. The products have been studied with XRD, IR, XPS, and DTA. The nanopowders exhibited a strong crystallographic transition to the rutile-type structure around 68-72 degreesC. The XRD patterns and TEM images of products showed that the average size of samples was in the range of 30-40 nm. The XPS results demonstrated that the vanadium exists as V4+ ions in the products. We also found that the phase transition temperature of products decreased by tungsten doping. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.