The monolayer dispersion of MoO3 supported on the surface of titanate nanotubes (TNT) were prepared by heating mechanical mixture of molybdate (HMA) and TNT. The result shows that MoO3 can disperse spontaneously onto the surface of TNT, and the dispersion capacity is ca. 27 mg MoO3/g TNT by X-ray diffraction (XRD). On the basis of thermogravimetric (TG) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, it was found that the HMA as precursor could not decompose completely into MoO3 crystal on the surface of TNT around the threshold above decomposed temperature due to the strong interaction between HMA and the surface of TNT. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.