A two-dimensional crystal of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayer is a photoluminescent direct gap semiconductor in striking contrast to its bulk counterpart. Exfoliation of bulk MoS2 via Li intercalation is an attractive route to large-scale synthesis of monolayer crystals. However, this method results in loss of pristine semiconducting properties of MoS2 due to structural changes that occur during Li intercalation. Here, we report structural and electronic properties of chemically exfoliated MoS2. The metastable metallic phase that emerges from Li intercalation was found to dominate the properties of as-exfoliated material, but mild annealing leads to gradual restoration of the semiconducting phase. Above an annealing temperature of 300 °C, chemically exfoliated MoS2 exhibit prominent band gap photoluminescence, similar to mechanically exfoliated monolayers, indicating that their semiconducting properties are largely restored.

Efficient evolution of hydrogen through electrocatalysis at low overpotentials holds tremendous promise for clean energy. Hydrogen evolution can be easily achieved by electrolysis at large potentials that can be lowered with expensive platinum-based catalysts. Replacement of Pt with inexpensive, earth-abundant electrocatalysts would be significantly beneficial for clean and efficient hydrogen evolution. To this end, promising results have been reported using 2H (trigonal prismatic) XS₂ (where X  =  Mo or W) nanoparticles with a high concentration of metallic edges. The key challenges for XS₂ are increasing the number and catalytic activity of active sites. Here we report monolayered nanosheets of chemically exfoliated WS₂ as efficient catalysts for hydrogen evolution with very low overpotentials. Analyses indicate that the enhanced electrocatalytic activity of WS₂ is associated with the high concentration of the strained metallic 1T (octahedral) phase in the as-exfoliated nanosheets. Our results suggest that chemically exfoliated WS₂ nanosheets are interesting catalysts for hydrogen evolution.