Preparation of Few-Layer MoS₂ Nanosheets via an Efficient Shearing Exfoliation Method

Abstract

In this paper, we selected a less studied high-speed dispersive homogenizer as a shear-exfoliating device and selected NMP which matches the surface energy of MoS2 as a solvent to prepare few-layer MoS2 nanosheets. The effects of operating parameters on the concentration of few-layer MoS2 nanosheets were systematically studied. The results showed that the change of operating conditions has a direct influence on the exfoliation effects. The concentration of MoS2 nanosheets was 0.96 mg/mL in pure NMP under the optimized conditions. The concentration reached 1.44 mg/mL, and the highest yield was 4.8% after adding sodium citrate. Particularly, their lateral size is about 50–200 nm, in which almost 65% of MoS2 nanosheets are less than four layers and 9% are monolayer. It was verified that the as-used exfoliation method is simple and highly efficient.