Synthesis of α-MoO3 nanoplates using organic aliphatic acids and investigation of sunlight enhanced photodegradation of organic dyes

•α-MoO3 hexagonal nanoplates using organic structure controlling agents.•Tunable optical band gap of MoO3.•Demonstrated strong sun light mediated enhanced photodegradation of methylene blue and rhodamine blue.•Photodegradation did not use any other external oxidizing agents.

Thermodynamically stable α-MoO3 nanoplates were synthesized using organic aliphatic acids as structure controlling agents and investigated photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine blue (Rh-B) in presence of sun light. Three different organic aliphatic acids, citric acid (CA), tartaric acid (TA) and ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), were employed to control morphologies. CA and TA predominantly produced extended hexagonal plates where EDTA gave nanorods as well as nanoplates. PXRD studies confirmed the formation of α-MoO3 nanoparticles. HR-TEM and FE-SEM reveal the formation of plate morphologies with 20–40 nm thickness, 50–100 nm diameter and 600 nm lengths. The different morphologies of α-MoO3 nanoparticles lead to the tunable optical band gap between 2.80 and 2.98 eV which was obtained from diffused reflectance spectra (DRS). Interestingly, the synthesized α-MoO3 nanoplates exhibited strong photocatalytic degradation of MB and Rh-B up to 99% in presence of sun light without using any oxidizing agents.

Graphical abstractThermodynamically stable α-MoO3 nanoplates and nanorods were synthesized using organic structure controlling agents and demonstrated sun light enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine blue (Rh-B) dyes in aqueous solution.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide