Facile Synthesis of Phase Tunable MoO₃ Nanostructures and Their Electrochemical Sensing Properties.

MoO3 nanostructures with tunable phases such as alpha-MoO3, beta-MoO3 and their mixed phases were synthesized via a simple solid state decomposition method and employed as electrocatalyst for the detection of biomolecule. The phase and crystal structure of the synthesized MoO3 nanostructures were confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. The MoO3 nanostructures were also characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV-Vis spectroscopy for their structural, chemical state and optical properties, respectively. The observed results confirmed the successful formation of phase tunable MoO3 nanostructures. The surface texture and morphology of the samples was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained images showed the formation of hexagons, cubes and rods morphology of MoO3. The synthesized MoO3 nanostructures were used to modify the surface of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to detect biomolecule (quercetin).