There is a need for more efficient, stable and cost-effective catalytic support for efficient catalysts to meet the increasing demand for large production and transportation of hydrogen energy. Laponite RD, a synthetic clay mineral was used to prepare Al, Ti and Zr grafted Laponite by a post grafting method at room temperature (RT). The acid-functionalized Al, Ti and Zr-Laponite were utilized as a support for the preparation of MoS2 catalyst under the hydrothermal method by a soft chemical approach using thiourea as a sulphur source. Even though it contained almost the same amount of MoS2, it exhibited enhanced ammonia conversion due to the type of heteroatom influence on the support. Detailed characterization of the catalysts illustrated that MoS2/Zr-Laponite shows good acidic/basic properties, H-2 desorption properties and reducibility of MoS2 on the support. Moreover, the support enables a large surface area providing a maximum MoS2 dispersion. These structural features make MoS2/Zr-Laponite as a promising catalyst that is cost-effective and requires a simple preparation procedure. Physicochemical properties of the catalyst were characterized by high-angle XRD, N-2 sorption analysis, NH3, CO2 and N-2 temperature programmed reduction (TPD), H-2 temperature programmed reduction (TPR) and TPD, HR-TEM, HR-SEM and XPS techniques. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.