Amin Eftekhari - Department of Physics, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
Mohammad Bagher Rahmani - Department of Physics, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
Fatemeh Masdarolomoor - Department of Chemistry, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

Undoped and tin (Sn) doped molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3) nanostructured thin films (which has lamellar (2D) structure) have been prepared using a simple and cost effective technique of spray pyrolysis on glass substrates at 450oC. Surface morphology, optical and structural properties of samples have been investigated using FESEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy and XRD analysis techniques, respectively. FESEM images showed the formation of some discrete micro-spheres on the surface, which with the increasing in the amount of dopant homogenous and dense nano-platelets was grown on top of these micro-spheres. The XRD pattern analysis shows that all samples have been grown in orthorhombic (α-MoO3) crystal structure and except for the sample doped with 50 at% Sn which had a weak peak of SnO2, no peak have been observed corresponding to the incorporation of Sn. By increasing the amount of impurity, optical transmittance of samples were increased from ~27 to 50%. Also, the band gap of samples were calculated using transmission data. An increasing of band gap from 3.34 to 3.89 eV was observed with increasing in the amount of doping.

Crystal structure,Molybdenum trioxide,Micro-spheres,Nano-platelets,Spray pyrolysis,,