Controlled growth of MoO3 nanorods on transparent conducting substrates

• We provide a simple and operable method to prepare MoO3 nanostucture on substrate.
• We prepared MoO3 nanorods on glass by magnetron sputtering and subsequent oxidation treatment.
• We established the correlation between the morphologies of products and annealing temperatures.
• We studied the UV–vis spectra which related to the particle size and crystalline structures.

MoO3 nanorods with well-defined crystalline structure have been grown in situ on Fluorine doped Tin Oxide glass (FTO) by magnetron sputtering and subsequent oxidation treatment. Moreover, the morphologies and the crystalline structures of MoO3 products could be rationally tailored by adjusting the annealing temperature. More specifically, the calcination operated at 500 °C for 6 h leads to the formation of uniform MoO3 nanorods with an average diameter of 200 nm, and length of up to 800 nm, whereas only irregular nanoparticles or nanoplates have been obtained when the temperature was higher or lower than 500 °C.