Hydrothermal synthesis of variety low dimensional WS2 nanostructures

•WS2 nanostructures were successfully synthesized through a hydrothermal method.•Different nanostructures were obtained by controlling surfactants concentration.•Surfactants play an important role in the formation of the WS2 nanostructures.•This research is important for the preparations of other metal sulfide materials.

We report a successful fabrication of tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanostructures with different morphologies including rod-like, sheet-like and fiber-like ones via a simple yet facile hydrothermal process by adding surfactants cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). The structural features of the as-prepared WS2 are characterized systematically by the X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. We find that the surfactants play a critical role in producing low dimensional WS2 structures with different morphologies. We also propose growth mechanisms for the various WS2 morphologies. The simple fabrication of WS2 nanostructures can also be applied for the synthesis of other transition metal sulfides with novel nanostructures.