Large-scale synthesis of transition metal dichalcogenides at atmospheric pressure in air

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have received considerable attention in recent years because of their intriguing 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 of over 95%. With the help of binary salts (KCl, KBr), TMDs can be easily obtained for a short reaction time of 1 h at a relatively low temperature (400°C). The as-synthesized MoS₂ powders show flower-like nanospheres, which exhibit a desired catalytic performance in hydrogen evolution reactions and 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 with low cost and time consumption, which has a great potential to integrate into industrial production.