Research progress on the preparation and application of nano-sized molybdenum disulfide

Abstract

In recent years, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), as a material that shows analogous structure to graphene, has attracted more and more attentions of scientists. Due to its layered structure, special electronic and electrochemical properties, large specific surface area and the potential of surface modification, nano-sized MoS2 is widely used in many fields. In this review, the authors introduce several preparation methods of nano-sized MoS2, mainly including micromechanical cleavage, liquid exfoliation, lithium intercalation, hydrothermal reaction, vapor deposition and thermal decomposition. All these methods possess their own advantages, but at present, there is no good ways to achieve the large-scale production of large-area MoS2 nanosheets with controllable layer number or MoS2 nano-architectures with controllable shape. Apart from the preparation methods, the authors mainly introduce the research progress on the application of nano-sized MoS2 in the fields of optoelectronic devices, catalysis, sensing, energy storage and conversion, and stress the research status of the application in the aspects of electrochemistry and biosensing analysis. In addition, the development direction of nano-sized MoS2 in the future is also been pointed out. According to the present researches, nano-sized MoS2 possesses enormous potential in the fields of energy storage and conversion, sensing analysis, and devices, etc., and it may become a kind of multi-functional material with excellent performance in the wake of graphene.