Thermolysis Synthesis of MoS₂ Microrods for Noble Metal-Free Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

Qiuhao Li; Zhenwei Zhang; Qiushuang Chen; Yang Li; Xiuqing Qiao

doi:10.1166/jnn.2019.16664

Thermolysis Synthesis of MoS₂ Microrods for Noble Metal-Free Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2019 Nov 1;19(11):7381-7386. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2019.16664.

Authors

Qiuhao Li¹, Zhenwei Zhang¹, Qiushuang Chen¹, Yang Li¹, Xiuqing Qiao¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for New Energy Microgrid, Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Crystalline and Energy Conversion Materials, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, 443002, China.

PMID: 31039900
DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2019.16664

Abstract

MoS₂ microrods constructed by ultrathin nanosheets have been synthesized, for the first time, by thermal decomposition of intermediate (NH₄)₂MoS₄ crystals, which could not only provide the single-source for both the molybdenum and sulfur atoms, but also served as the self-sacrificed template. The well-defined microstructure was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, respectively. The results indicated that MoS₂ microrods with uniform morphology were assembled by defective ultrathin nanosheets. Moreover, these MoS₂ microrods exhibit superior catalytic activity with the apparent rate constant (κ_app) of 0.161 min^-1 for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by NaBH4. Encouragingly, the MoS₂ microrods still show evident activity for the reduction of 4-NP after five cycle tests, which has significant importance for the application in the reduction of 4-NP to p-aminophenol (4-AP). Also, this method can be extended to construct other kinds of metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).