Thermolysis Synthesis of MoS2 Microrods for Noble Metal-Free Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol

MoS2 microrods constructed by ultrathin nanosheets have been synthesized, for the first time, by thermal decomposition of intermediate (NH4)(2)MoS4 crystals, which could not only provide the single-source for both the molybdenum and sulfur atoms, but also served as the self-sacrificed template. The well-defined microstructure was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, respectively. The results indicated that MoS2 microrods with uniform morphology were assembled by defective ultrathin nanosheets. Moreover, these MoS2 microrods exhibit superior catalytic activity with the apparent rate constant (kappa(app)) of 0.161 min(-1) for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) by NaBH4. Encouragingly, the MoS2 microrods still show evident activity for the reduction of 4-NP after five cycle tests, which has significant importance for the application in the reduction of 4-NP to p-aminophenol (4-AP). Also, this method can be extended to construct other kinds of metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).