Facile synthesis of WS2 hollow spheres and their hydrogen evolution reaction performance

•We successfully fabricated WS2 hollow structure using a facile hydrothermal method.•All the basic characterizations were carried such as XRD, XPS, EDS, SEM, and Raman.•The electrochemical properties of WS2 hollow spheres toward HER were confirmed.•WS2 hollow spheres exhibited better conductivity than the WS2 nanoflowers.•WS2 hollow spheres showed better performance compared to that of WS2 nanoflowers.