Synthesis and structural characterization of tungsten disulfide nanomaterials

In this study, tungsten disulfide nanoparticles with different structure have been generated via a solid-gas reaction with tungsten oxide nanobundles as precursors. The structural features of the as-prepared tungsten disulfide nanomaterials were investigated via electron microscopy and selected area electron patterns (SAED) in detail. SAED pattern obtained from the tungsten disulfide particles with sheet-texture structure is discrete speckled rings consisting of numbers of diffraction spots, differing dramatically from those of tungsten disulfide nanorods and nanotubes. The formation of the unique tungsten disulfide sheet-texture particles should be attributed to both the morphological evolution of the tungsten oxide bundles and the sulphur diffusion during the oxide-to-disulfide conversion. This study may be helpful to investigate structurally other layered materials with different morphology. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.