Synthesis and characterization of flowerlike MoS2 nanostructures through CTAB-assisted hydrothermal process

MoS2 nanoflowers were successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal process with the help of a surfactant. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). X-ray diffraction results showed that the as-prepared product was the hexagonal phase of MoS2 without any impurity. TEM and SEM images showed that the MoS2 nanoflowers had uniform sizes with diameter of about 1–2 μm and were constructed with many irregular nanosheets as a petal-like structure with thickness of several nanometers. A possible formation mechanism of the MoS2 nanoflowers was preliminarily proposed on the basis of observations of a time-dependent morphology evolution process.

Higlights
► MoS2 nanoflowers were synthesized by a facile CTAB-assisted hydrothermal method.
► MoS2 nanoflowers with mean diameter about 1–2 μm consist of many irregular MoS2 nanosheets.
► A possible growth mechanism of flower like MoS2 nanostructure was proposed.