Highly efficient solution exfoliation of few-layer molybdenum disulfide nanosheets for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has drawn increasing attention due to its great potential for advanced electronics, photonics, optoelectronics, energy storage, catalysis and solar cell. However, high effective exfoliation for the mass production of 2D MoS2 is still a challenge. To improve the exfoliation efficiency of MoS2 nanosheets, a facile liquid-phase exfoliation strategy has been developed by using organic electrolyte solutions in this work. It is shown that the dispersion concentration of MoS2 nanosheets has been significantly enhanced in organic electrolyte solutions. For example, by adding sodium tartrate into dimethyl sulphoxide, the dispersion concentration of MoS2 nanosheets is 85 times that in neat dimethyl sulphoxide. About 80% of MoS2 nanosheets obtained in such a strategy is 1–4 layers and the nanosheets remain 2H phase structure. In addition, the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of the as-prepared few-layer MoS2 nanosheets is evaluated. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate is as high as 0.5 mmolg−1 h−1, which is 71 and 10 times higher than that of bulk MoS2 and the 2H-MoS2 nanosheets, respectively, reported to date. Exfoliation mechanism investigation suggests that the size of cation and the intensity of Lewis basicity of anion in the salts have played an important role in the exfoliation of MoS2. The liquid exfoliation strategy reported here has great potential in the large-scale and high quality production of few-layer MoS2 nanosheets for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.