Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a promising nanomaterial which has been extensively investigated in photo-/electro-catalysis, sensors, and batteries due to its excellent physical/chemical properties. In this manuscript, MoS2 hierarchical nanotubes with hollow nanostructure are successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. SEM indicates that such MoS2 nanotubes have perfect uniformity while TEM demonstrates the hollow structure. Specifically, the ratio of MoS2 to the randomly produced polysulfide in the synthesized MoS2 nanotubes is 4.29 which confirms that the synthesized MoS2 nanotubes have quite high quality. Compared with the previous studies, our MoS2 nanotubes show superior rate capability and cyclability (127 mAh g(-1) at 200 mA g(-1) after 100 cycles) in the potassium ion battery. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.