Synthesis of Nanostructured Molybdenum Trioxide by Thermal Decomposition Method in the Presence of Stearic Acid

In this research, pure nanostructured molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) was prepared by thermal decomposition of bisacetylacetonatodioxo molybdenum (VI), MoO2(acac)2, precursor in the presence of stearic acid. ‍Characterization of the resulted nanostructure was performed with different physicochemical methods such as Fourier Transform InfraRed (FT-IR) spectroscopy,UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). X-ray diffraction pattern confirms high purity and crystallinity of α-MoO3 with orthorhombic crystal phase. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy show short nanorod morphology with a thickness of 50-80 nm. Furthermore, the band gap of MoO3 nanostructure was calculated about 3.65 eV from UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy. An appropriate crystal growth mechanism was also proposed based on the X-ray diffraction analysis.