Synthesis of Porous Nanostructured MoS₂ Materials in Thermal Shock Conditions and Their Performance in Lithium-Ion Batteries

We offer a simple synthesis of porous nanostructured MoS2 materials by the rapid decomposition of ammonium tetrathiomolybdate aerogel in an inert atmosphere at temperatures of 400–700 °C. The synthesis products consist of thin elongated porous plates, in which pores of 2–30 nm in size are surrounded by curved MoS2 layers. The temperature gradient arising upon heating leads to the creation of extended MoS2 layers on the surface of the plates. The lateral size and the number of adjacent layers on the surface and inside the plates increase with the synthesis temperature. The material obtained at 700 °C showed the best rate capability in lithium-ion batteries. Its specific capacity was 817 mA h g–1 at a current density of 2 A g–1 and reached 1139 mA h g–1 in subsequent cycling at 0.1 A g–1. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed fast diffusion of lithium ions and low resistance of charge transfer for this material. A unique architecture, where the hard shell prevents the loss of electrochemically active species and the conductive intertwined MoS2 layers preserve pores for the accommodation of these species, provides high stability and large storage capacity of the material. The developed synthesis technique can be adopted for nanostructuring of other redox-active compounds promising for energy application fields.