High Phase-Purity 1T-MoS2 Ultrathin Nanosheets by a Spatially Confined Template

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2019 Dec 2;58(49):17621-17624. doi: 10.1002/anie.201909879. Epub 2019 Oct 23.

Abstract

The crystal phase plays an important role in controlling the properties of a nanomaterial; however, it is a great challenge to obtain a nanomaterial with high purity of the metastable phase. For instance, the large-scale synthesis of the metallic phase MoS2 (1T-MoS2 ) is important for enhancing electrocatalytic reaction, but it can only be obtained under harsh conditions. Herein, a spatially confined template method is proposed to synthesize high phase-purity MoS2 with a 1T content of 83 %. Moreover, both the confined space and the structure of template will affect the purity of 1T-MoS2 ; in this case, this approach was extended to other similar spatially confined templates to obtain the high-purity material. The obtained ultrathin nanosheets exhibit good electrocatalytic activity and excellent stability in the hydrogen evolution reaction.

Keywords: hydrogen evolution reaction; intercalation; metastable phases; molybdenum disulfide; nanosheets.