Thermally Stable Hierarchical Nanostructures of Ultrathin\nMoS₂ Nanosheet-Coated CeO₂ Hollow Spheres as\nCatalyst for Ammonia Decomposition

Abstract

MoS₂ ultrathin nanosheet-coated\nCeO₂ hollow sphere (CeO₂@MoS₂) hybrid\nnanostructures with a 3D hierarchical configuration were successfully\nconstructed from a facile two-step wet chemistry strategy: first,\nCeO₂ formed on a silica core which served as a template\nand was subsequently removed by NaOH solution to attain hollow spheres,\nand then few-layered ultrathin MoS₂ nanosheets were deposited\non the CeO₂ hollow spheres through a hydrothermal process.\nAs a proof of concept application, the as-prepared CeO₂@MoS₂ hybrid nanostructures were used as catalytic material,\nwhich exhibited enhanced catalytic activity in ammonia decomposition\nfor H₂ production at high temperature. It was demonstrated\nthat, even with a structural transformation from MoS₂ to\nMoN_<i>x</i> under harsh conditions of ammonia\ndecomposition at high temperature (700 °C), the 3D hierarchical\nnanostructures of the CeO₂@MoN_<i>x</i> were well kept, indicating the important role of the CeO₂ support.