HYDROTHERMAL SYNTHESIS OF alpha-MoO3 NANORODS FOR NO2 DETECTION

Thermodynamically stable molybdenum trioxide nanorods have been successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal process. The product exhibits high-quality, single-crystalline layered orthorhombic structure (alpha-MoO3), and aspect ratio over 20 by characterizations of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR). The growth mechanism of alpha-MoO3 nanorods can be understood by electroneutral and dehydration reaction, which is highly dependent on solution acidity and hydrothermal temperature. The sensing tests show that the sensor based on MoO3 nanorods exhibits high sensitivity to NO2 and is not interferred by CO and CH4, which makes this kind sensor a competitive candidate for NO2 detection. The intrinsic sensing performance of MoO3 maybe arise from its nonstoichiometry of MoO3 owing to the presence of Mo5+ and oxygen vacancy in MoO3 lattice, which has been confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The sensing mechanism of MoO3 for NO2 is also discussed.