Self-assembly of nanoclusters in molybdenum blue dispersions in the presence of organic reducing agent

Molybdenum blue dispersions were synthesized by reducing an acidic molybdate solution with glucose, hydroquinone and ascorbic acid. The role of the H/Mo molar ratio in the process of formation for molybdenum particles was established. For each reducing agent, the conditions for the formation of aggregative stable dispersion of nanoclusters with the maximum concentration of particles were determined. The dispersed phase was represented by toroidal molybdenum oxide nanoclusters, which was confirmed by the results of UV–Vis, FTIR, XPS spectroscopy, DLS and TEM.