2D Single Crystal WSe₂ and MoSe₂ Nanomeshes with Quantifiable High Exposure of Layer Edges from 3D Mesoporous Silica Template

The design and fabrication of layered transition metal chalcogenides with high exposure of crystal layer edges is one of the key paths to achieve distinctive performances in their catalysis and electrochemistry applications. Two-dimensional WSe2 and MoSe2 nanomeshes with orderly arranged nanoholes were synthesized by using a mesoporous silica material KIT-6 with three-dimensional mesoporous structure as a hard template via a nanocasting strategy. Each piece of the nanomesh is a single crystal, and its c axis is always perpendicular to the nanomesh plane. The highly porous structure brings these nanomeshes extremely high exposure of layer edges, and the well-defined nanostructure provides an opportunity to quantitatively estimate the specific length of the crystal layer edges for the WSe2 and MoSe2 nanomeshes synthesized in this work, which are estimated to be 3.8 × 1010 and 6.0 × 1010 m g–1, respectively. The formation of a 2D sheet-like nanomesh structure inside a 3D confined pore space should be attributed to the synergistic effect from the crystal self-limitation growth that is caused by their layered crystal structures and the space-limitation effect coming from the unique pore structure of the KIT-6 template. The catalytic activities of the nanomeshes in an electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction were also investigated.