Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of 3D flower-like MoS2 microspheres

●The uniform 3D flower-like MoS2 microspheres were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal approach.●The obtained 3D flower-like MoS2 microspheres were dispersed well and the diameter of the microspheres was about 4 μm.●A possible formation mechanism of the MoS2 microspheres was proposed.

Three-dimensional (3D) flower-like MoS2 microspheres with diameter of about 4 μm were successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal solution reaction method, using hexaammonium heptamolybdate tetrahydrate ((NH4)6Mo7O24) and thiourea as the precursors. As-prepared MoS2 samples were characterized by XRD, EDS, SEM, and TEM. SEM results showed that the obtained 3D flower-like MoS2 microspheres are comprised of very thin nanosheets with the thickness about 20 nm. The influence of reaction time on the formation of MoS2 microspheres was investigated. A possible growth mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of MoS2 microspheres on the basis of observations of a time-dependent morphology evolution process.