Preparation of Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Disulfide Nanosheets by High-Gravity Technology

In this paper, a high-gravity technology was described to prepare two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide nanosheets from bulk materials. This high-gravity field, producing by a rotating packed bed, provides shear force and collision force to exfoliate layered bulk molybdenum disulfide into nanosheets. The effects of rotational speed, surfactant concentration, exfoliation time, packing volume fraction, and exfoliation time on the concentration were systematically studied. The results showed that the concentration of the as prepared suspension could be easily controlled. The concentration is 0.37 mg/mL under optimum conditions. Moreover, the dispersion of two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide nanosheets could be stabile for a long time. The lateral size of as produced molybdenum disulfide nanosheets ranged from 50 to 800 nm, and the mean lateral size was 380 nm. Almost 84% of nanosheets were less than five layers. We also demonstrated that high-gravity technology also can be applied to tungsten disulfide. This technology provides a facile, efficient, and universal approach to prepare two-dimensional materials from layered bulk precursors.