Low temperature fabrication of hexagon shaped h-MoO3 nanorods and its phase transformation

Hexagon shaped h-MoO3 nanorods have been fabricated via the probe sonication route using ammonium molybdate, urea and sodium dodecyl sulphate at 70 °C. Pure metastable h-MoO3 and α-MoO3 were obtained under the current synthetic conditions. The h-MoO3 phase was transformed to α-MoO3 phase at 400 °C, while the hexagon shape rods structures of h-MoO3 were collapsed and transformed to elongated particles of α-MoO3. As-prepared products were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM).