Thermolysis Synthesis of MoS₂ Microrods for Noble Metal-Free Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol.

MoS₂ microrods constructed by ultrathin nanosheets have been synthesized, for the first time, by thermal decomposition of intermediate (NH₄)₂MoS₄ crystals, which could not only provide the single-source for both the molybdenum and sulfur atoms, but also served as the self-sacrificed template. The well-defined microstructure was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, respectively. The results indicated that MoS₂ microrods with uniform morphology were assembled by defective ultrathin nanosheets. Moreover, these MoS₂ microrods exhibit superior catalytic activity with the apparent rate constant () of 0.161 min for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by NaBH4. Encouragingly, the MoS₂ microrods still show evident activity for the reduction of 4-NP after five cycle tests, which has significant importance for the application in the reduction of 4-NP to p-aminophenol (4-AP). Also, this method can be extended to construct other kinds of metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).