In this work, we demonstrated the field emission properties of few layer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) nanosheets synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Structural investigation indicates the as-synthesized MoS2 layers were two dimensional few layer nanosheets with a sharp atomic edges. The field emission properties of the MoS2 nanosheets were investigated and the results indicate that the MoS2 nanosheets had an excellent field emission performance with turn on field of 1.0 V/mu m, threshold field of 2.1 V/mu m, and a field enhancement factor of 9880. Furthermore, the emission current shows the stability over 2 h of continuous operation. The as-synthesized MoS2 few layer nanosheets hold potential for application in next-generation field emission devices. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.