WS2

Tungsten disulfide · Tungsten sulfide

Tungsten disulfide is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide known for its excellent lubricating properties and structural stability. It is widely utilized as a solid lubricant in demanding environments and serves as a foundational material in the development of advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Crystal structure of WS2 (hexagonal, P63/mmc (No. 194))
Ground-state structure · Materials Project
Overview

Key Properties

Cross-validated computational properties for Tungsten disulfide, aggregated across 4 databases.

Band Gap

1.26–1.81 eV
Range across DFT structures

Energy Above Hull

0.000 eV/atom
Best (lowest) across sources

Stability

On hull (stable)
2 DFT sources

Structures

190
4 databases, 29 space groups
Crystallography

Reported Structures

Lowest-energy structures reported for WS2, ranked by energy above hull.

Space GroupCrystal SystemBand Gap (eV)E above hull (eV/atom)E/atom (eV)Density (g/cm³)
P63/mmc (No. 194)hexagonal1.260.0000-23.3627.23
R3m (No. 160)trigonal1.600.0009-23.3617.22
P-3m1 (No. 164)trigonal1.660.0038-23.3585.34
P-6m2 (No. 187)hexagonal1.630.0052-23.3574.93
P-3m1 (No. 164)trigonal1.700.0074-23.3553.96
P-6m2 (No. 187)hexagonal1.810.0142-23.3482.77
I-42d (No. 122)tetragonal0.000.7529-22.6095.69
C2/m (No. 12)
Cm (No. 8)Monoclinic8.33
Cm (No. 8)Monoclinic9.05
P-6m2 (No. 187)
P63/mmc (No. 194)
Uses

Applications

Where Tungsten disulfide is used.

Solid lubricantDry film coatingCatalysisSemiconductor researchNanotechnology
Reference

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Tungsten disulfide, answered from cross-validated data.

What is WS2?

Tungsten disulfide is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide known for its excellent lubricating properties and structural stability. It is widely utilized as a solid lubricant in demanding environments and serves as a foundational material in the development of advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices.

More questions
What is WS2 used for?
Tungsten disulfide (WS2) is used in solid lubricant, dry film coating, catalysis, semiconductor research, and nanotechnology.
What is the band gap of WS2?
Tungsten disulfide (WS2) has a DFT-computed band gap of 1.26–1.81 eV across 190 reported structures.
Is WS2 a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
With a band gap up to 1.81 eV it is a semiconductor.
Is WS2 thermodynamically stable?
Yes — Tungsten disulfide (WS2) sits on the convex hull (energy above hull 0 eV/atom), i.e. on hull (stable).
What is the crystal structure of WS2?
The lowest-energy reported polymorph of Tungsten disulfide (WS2) is hexagonal symmetry, space group P63/mmc (No. 194).
What is the density of WS2?
The computed density of the ground-state structure of Tungsten disulfide (WS2) is 7.23 g/cm³.
How many polymorphs of WS2 are known?
190 structures of WS2 are reported across 4 databases, spanning 29 distinct space groups.
What elements does WS2 contain?
Tungsten disulfide (WS2) contains S and W (2 elements).
Where does the data for WS2 come from?
WS2 data is cross-referenced from materials_project, jarvis, mpaloe.
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Related Compounds

Other Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides in the database.

Data sources & attribution
  • materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
  • jarvis — Data from JARVIS (NIST). Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020).
  • mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.

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