Hydrothermal Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance of Flower-like MoS2 Nanoparticles

Flower-like MoS2 nanoparticles were synthesized via a mild hydrothermal method using molybdenum trioxide and ammonium thiocyanate as the starting materials. The influence of reaction temperature and reaction time on the electrochemical performance of flowerlike MoS2 was investigated. The crystalline structure, morphology, components and surface areas of the as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), respectively. The as-prepared samples presented flower-like nanoparticles composed of multiple ordered petal-shaped layer stacking structure with high BET surface areas. The cyclic voltammetry (C-V) results indicated that the electrochemical catalytic activity of MoS2 was superior to that of Pt. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on MoS2 exhibited higher energy conversion efficiency(2.44%)than that of Pt (2.33%), indicating the potential application of the former to solar cells.