Pure and Ag doped h-MoO3 nanorods were synthesized via solution based self assembly route method and their application as sonophotocatalysts for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under diffused sunlight was studied. The samples showed metastable hexagonal structure with an effect of Ag doping on the crystallite size and were hexagonal nanorods with expected elemental composition. The optical band gap energy was found to decrease with Ag doping and the photoluminescence spectra showed the peaks as reported. From the dye degradation studies, it was observed that, the degradation efficiency was increased with addition of Ag and the degradation rate was better for the Ag (0.5 M) doped h-MoO3. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.