Deposition of vanadium oxide on some semiconducting substrates by dip coating method using metavanadic acid solution, has led to the direct formation of a vanadium bronze. This bronze formation seems to occur by the metal intercalation from these substrates as a result of a redox reaction taking place at the substrate material interface. The same deposition was also carried out on different substrates for comparison. Infrared, electrochemical and atomic absorption studies carried out on these films point towards the formation of a vanadium bronze of the type beta (beta-M0.35 V2O5). The consequences of this process on the infrared work using different substrates, such as KBr, NaCl, KRS-5 are discussed.