Surfactant-Free Nonaqueous Synthesis of Plasmonic Molybdenum Oxide Nanosheets with Enhanced Catalytic Activity for Hydrogen Generation from Ammonia Borane under Visible Light

Plasmonic materials have drawn emerging interest, especially in nontraditional semiconductor nanostructures with earth-abundant elements and low resistive loss. However, the actualization of highly efficient catalysis in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures is still a challenge, owing to the presence of surface-capping agents in their synthetic procedures. To fulfill this, a facile non-aqueous procedure was employed to prepare well-defined molybdenum oxide nano-sheets in the absence of surfactants. The obtained MoO3-x nanosheets display intense absorption in a wide range attributed to the localized surface plasmon resonances, which can be tuned from the visible to the near-infrared region. Herein, we demonstrate that such plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures could be used as highly efficient catalysts that dramatically enhance the hydrogen-generation activity of ammonia borane under visible light irradiation.