Low-cost fabrication of highly dispersed atomically-thin MoS₂ nanosheets with abundant active Mo-terminated edges

In this work, highly dispersed atomically-thin MoS₂ nanosheets were fabricated at one thousandth of the commercial cost using sepiolite (SEP) mineral nanofibers as carriers via a microwave hydrothermal method. Atom-resolved microscopy revealed the MoS₂ nanosheets were only 1–4 atomic layers thick. The Mo atoms anchored on the mineral surface served as nucleation sites for the nanosheet growth. The MoS₂ layers were in staggered stacking yielding abundant atomic steps at the nanosheets’ edges, where catalytically active molybdenum terminations dominated instead of the inert sulfur atoms commonly reported. DFT calculations disclosed that the bonding of Mo(MoS₂) and O (SEP) at the MoS₂/sepiolite (MSEP) interface enabled SEP to be a unique support, superior to the other minerals for growing such highly-dispersed ultrathin MoS₂ architecture. In a typical photocatalyisis application, the MSEP demonstrated a significantly improved photocatalytic performance for RhB degradation compared with the MoS₂ nanosheets assembled microspheres. This work provides an important new strategy for low-cost batch preparation of high quality 2D materials via assembly on mineral materials.