Facile synthesis and characterization of ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets

• The ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets were synthesized by the facile gas–solid reaction method using MoO3 and thiourea as the precursors.
• The obtained nanosheets were dispersed well and the thickness of the nanosheets was 5–10 nm.
• A possible formation mechanism of the MoS2 nanosheets was proposed.

Ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets with thickness of 5–10 nm were successfully synthesized by a facile gas–solid reaction method, using molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) and thiourea as the precursors, and then calcined at 800–850 °C under N2 for 1 h. As-prepared MoS2 samples were characterized by XRD, EDS, FESEM, and TEM. TEM and FESEM results showed that the obtained MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets mainly consisted of 5–10 layers stacking of the monatomic sheets. The influence of temperature on the formation of MoS2 nanosheets was investigated. A possible two-step reaction mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of MoS2 nanosheets on the basis of observations of a temperature-dependent morphology evolution process.