Ultrathin nanoplates of metastable 1T-MoS 2 have been successfully stabilized and uniformly distributed on the surface of n-butyl triethyl ammonium bromide functionalized polypyrrole/graphene oxide (BTAB/PPy/GO) by a very simple hydrothermal method. BTAB as a typical kind of quaternary ammonium-type ionic liquids (ILs) played a crucial role in the formation of the obtained 1T-MoS 2 /BTAB/PPy/GO. It was covalently linked with PPy/GO and arranged in a highly ordered order at the solid−liquid interface of PPy/GO and H 2 O due to Coulombic interactions and other intermolecular interactions, which would induce and stabilize ultrathin 1T-MoS 2 nanoplates by morphosynthesis. The good electrocatalytic activity toward nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) with strong durability and good stability can be achieved by 1T-MoS 2 /BTAB/PPy/GO due to their excellent inorganic/organic hierarchical lamellar micro-/nanostructures. Especially, after the long-term electrocatalysis for NRR at a negative potential, metastable 1T-MoS 2 as the catalytic center undergoes two types of irreversible crystal phase transition, which was converted to 1T′-MoS 2 and Mo 2 N, caused by the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process and the electrochemical reaction between the electroactive 1T-MoS 2 and N 2 , respectively. The new N−Mo bonding prevents Mo atoms from binding to other N atoms in N 2 , resulting in the deactivation of the electrocatalysts to NRR after being used for 18 h. Even so, quaternary ammonium-type ILs would induce the crystal structures of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which might provide a new thought for the reasonable design of electrocatalysts based on TMDCs for electrocatalysis. KEYWORDS: n-butyl triethyl ammonium bromide (BTAB), polypyrrole/graphene oxide (PPy/GO), 1T-MoS 2 , nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), irreversible crystal phase transition
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.