Synthesis of MoS₂ Inorganic Fullerene-like Nanoparticles by a Chemical Vapour Deposition Method

Abstract

MoS₂ nanoparticles with fullerene-like structure (IF-MoS₂) were successfully obtained at heating temperature higher than 840 °C by a chemical vapour deposition method usingMoO3 and sulfur powders as raw materials. The synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX and Raman spectrometry, respectively. The reaction temperature has important influences on composition and morphology of the products, and pure IF-MoS₂ nanoparticles can be obtained only in the narrow temperature range of 840–870 °C. Diffraction peak (002) of IF-MoS₂ nanoparticles moves to small angle compared to that of 2H-MoS₂, indicating that the  adjacent lattice spacing along the c-axis of IF-MoS₂ nanoparticles is about 2 % larger than that of layered 2H-MoS₂. The peaks at 155 cm^–1, 349.8 cm^–1 and 281.7 cm^–1 in the Raman spectrum of bulk and layered MoS2 are absent, which is attributed to MoS₂ layer folding or curling along Ã-M in Brillouin zone to  formfullerene-like polyhedra and nanotubes. In addition, a gradual formation mechanism of IF-MoS₂ nanoparticles was discussed in detail.

KEYWORDS: Synthesis, molybdenum disulfide, nanoparticles, fullerene-like structure, chemical vapour deposition.