title: Surfactant-free nonaqueous synthesis of plasmonic molybdenum oxide nanosheets with enhanced catalytic activity for hydrogen generation from ammonia borane under visible light.
abstract: 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 nanosheets in the absence of surfactants. The obtained MoO(3-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.
authors: Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan).
authors: Hefeng
authors: H
authors: Cheng
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Kamegawa
authors: Kohsuke
authors: K
authors: Mori
authors: Hiromi
authors: H
authors: Yamashita
keywords: heterogeneous catalysis; hydrogen generation; molybdenum oxide; nanostructures; surface plasmon resonance