Large-Scale Synthesis of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides at Atmospheric Pressure in Air

Abstract

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have achieved considerable attention in recent years because of their excellent chemical and physical properties. However, conventional synthesis methods including chemical vapor deposition and wet-chemical synthesis still face many challenges in mass production. Here, we develop a dynamic salt capsulation method to massively prepare TMDs (MoS2, WS2) at atmospheric pressure in air with a high yield more than 95%. With the help of binary salts (KCl, KBr), TMDs can be easily obtained in air for a short reaction time of one hour at a low-temperature of 400 ℃. The as-synthesized MoS2 powders show flower-like nanospheres, which exhibit an excellent catalytic performance in hydrogen evolution reactions, and show a good electrochemical performance as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries. This work provides a simple method to synthesize high quality and large quantities of TMDs combined with low cost and time savings, which has a great potential to integrate into industrial production.