An efficient and facile hydrothermal route for the pH-dictated synthesis of flower-like MoS2 photocatalyst was developed. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy characterization show the detailed morphologies of MoS2 microflowers. X-ray diffraction and photoelectron spectroscopy analysis confirm that the as-obtained product is of hexagonal MoS2 phase. The photocatalytic properties of flower-like MoS2 were evaluated by the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) under natural sunlight irradiation. The synthetic pH value could dictate the MoS2 performance, where MS-1 (pH = 1) exhibited the best response amongst all the samples. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.