Simple approach to induce solid‐state oriented growth of MoO ₃ microrods

A novel and simple approach to induce solid‐state oriented growth of molybdenum trioxide (MoO ₃ ) microparticles was explored, including the ball milling and thermal annealing processes. The obtained samples were characterised by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was found that the as‐prepared samples were one‐dimensional MoO ₃ microrods with high aspect ratios growing along the [001] orientation. In addition, as‐prepared samples show better optical property. Moreover, a possible formation mechanism was also proposed, in which the surface diffusion played an important role in the inducing and growth processes.