Morphology-dependent catalytic activity of plasmonic MoO3−x for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

Series of plasmonic MoO3−x particles have been prepared by a facile solvothermal method to produce hydrogen via hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. Interestingly, the as-prepared MoO3−x particles present various morphologies, i.e. flower, schistose and nanorod by simply tuning the reaction temperature and solvent volume ratio of distilled water and acetic acid. More importantly, these MoO3−x particles with different morphologies exhibit various catalytic performances of NH3BH3 under the irradiation of visible light. Particularly, the flower-like MoO3−x microstructure possesses the best catalytic activity for hydrogen production probably owing to the relatively large surface area and strong LSPR in the visible region.