Synthesis and material properties of α-MoO₃ nanoparticles

Among the fascinating transition-metal oxides, molybdenum oxides and its derivatives are highly desirable due to their peculiar structural and optical properties. MoO₃ is a wide band gap semiconductor with high exciton binding energy at room temperature. MoO₃ exists in three forms in nature i.e. α,β and h-forms (α= orthorhombic, β = monoclinic, h= hexagonal phase). In this work we are reporting synthesis and material properties of α-MoO₃ Nano crystals. Localized surface Plasmon resonance (LSPR) is resonance of collective oscillations of free charge carriers in Nano-Materials with incident light. α nanoparticles shows these kind of plasmatic interaction due to presence of electron at different defect sites. It has been applied to various functional materials and devices. We successfully synthesised α by one-pot synthesis by modified hydrothermal route. We find stacked Nano sheet morphology confirmed by FESEM. The synthesised structure showed good structural and optical properties which is confirmed by XRD, FESEM, UV-VIS, FT-IR studies. EDS spectra showed elemental composition of sample with no impurity. (author)