The layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructured materials are of great interest for electrochemical energy storage and conversion and electrocatalytic water splitting. However, they still exhibit very limited performance because of their limited active sites. To create more efficient MoS2 materials, herein, we develop a simple yet efficient approach to a unique column-like MoS2 superstructure composed of edge-terminated MoS2 nanosheets (CLET MoS2). These MoS2 nanosheets as building blocks with fully exposed active edges are oriented in a preferred manner, rendering CLET MoS2 that exhibits excellent electrochemical performance in both lithium ion storage and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Compared with that of commercial MoS2, these hierarchical MoS2 superstructures possess much higher specific capacity and superior cycling performance for lithium ion storage and excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability for HER with a very low Tafel slope of 39 mV decade–1, showing their great potential applications in lithium ion batteries and water splitting.

The layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructured materials are of great interest for electrochemical energy storage and conversion and electrocatalytic water splitting. However, they still exhibit very limited performance because of their limited active sites. To create more efficient MoS2 materials, herein, we develop a simple yet efficient approach to a unique column-like MoS2 superstructure composed of edge-terminated MoS2 nanosheets (CLET MoS2). These MoS2 nanosheets as building blocks with fully exposed active edges are oriented in a preferred manner, rendering CLET MoS2 that exhibits excellent electrochemical performance in both lithium ion storage and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Compared with that of commercial MoS2, these hierarchical MoS2 superstructures possess much higher specific capacity and superior cycling performance for lithium ion storage and excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability for HER with a very low Tafel slope of 39 mV decade–1, showing their great potential applications in lithium ion batteries and water splitting.