One-dimensional growth of MoOx-based organic–inorganic hybrid nanowires with tunable photochromic properties

Abstract

The diverse structures of molybdate anions significantly provide new opportunities to design various nanostructures of MoO_x-based organic–inorganic hybrids with prominent catalytic, electrochemical and photo/electrochromic properties. In this paper, the one-dimensional (1D) growth originating from anisotropic molybdate anions is successfully introduced to prepare a series of hybrid nanowires of Mo₃O₁₀(C₆H₈N)₂·2H₂O (anilinium trimolybdate), Mo₃O₁₀(C₂H₁₀N₂) (ethylenediamine trimolybdate) and Mo₃O₁₀(C₅H₆N)₂·H₂O (pyridium trimolybdate). Taking Mo₃O₁₀(C₆H₈N)₂·2H₂O for example, the 1D growth is proved to be associated with the chain-like structure of Mo₃O₁₀²⁻ anions by both experiments and quantum chemical calculations. Meanwhile, the synthesis parameters, e.g., reacting time, pH conditions and feeding ratio, show obvious influences on product morphologies based on different molybdate anions, further validating the growth mechanism. More importantly, the as-obtained MoO_x/amine nanostructures remarkably exhibit tunable photochromic properties depending on their 1D structures and hybrid composites, which presents the potential to design well-tailored functional optical nanodevices.