Colloidal MoS2 van der Waals Template for Growing Highly Uniform Nanomaterials

The van der Waals (vdW) structures of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have been studied extensively owing to the excellent electronic, optoelectronic, and catalytic performance with the atomic-scale sharpness of the interfaces. In addition, the presence of substitution and redox reactions in the vdW gaps also provides huge potential to be employed as a nanoscale reactor. Herein, the vdW gap of colloidal MoS2 is reported as a natural template for the formation of CoMo bimetallic oxide nanoparticles (BMONPs) with highly uniform size (similar to 4 nm), which resulted in further synthesis of the thin multiwalled carbon nanotubes with extremely narrow diameter distribution. This study not only pioneers a new application of TMDCs but also provides an efficient means to control the size of nanomaterials, which directly affect material properties.