Progress of 2D Semiconductor-based photocatalysts: Comparison
Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Peter Tang and Version 1 by Rajeev Ahuja.

A complete view of basic principles and mechanisms with regard to improving the structure stability, physical and chemical properties of the low dimensional semiconductor-based photocatalysts is presented here. Various 2D semiconductor-based photocatalysts show a high electrochemical property and photocatalytic performance due to their ultrathin character, high specific surface area with more activity sites, tunable bandgap to absorb sunlight and versatile options in structural assembly with other nanosheets. At present, most photocatalysts still need rare or expensive noble metals to improve the photocatalytic activity, which inhibits their commercial-scale application extremely. Thus, developing less costly, earth-abundant semiconductor-based photocatalysts with the efficient conversion of sunlight energy remains the primary challenge. A concise overview of different types of 2D semiconductor-mediated photocatalysts is given to figure out the advantages and disadvantages for mentioned semiconductor-based photocatalysis, including the structural property and stability, synthesize method, electrochemical property, and optical properties for H2/O2 production half-reaction along with overall water splitting.

  • Ultrathin semiconductor-based photocatalysts
  • Hydrogen evolution reaction
  • Oxygen evolution reaction
  • Overall water splitting
Please wait, diff process is still running!

References

  1. Conti, J.; Holtberg, P.; Diefenderfer, J.; LaRose, A.; Turnure, J.T.; Westfall, L. International Energy Outlook 2016 with Projections to 2040; Technical Report; USDOE Energy Information Administration (EIA): Washington, DC, USA, 2016; Office of Energy Analysis.
  2. Yang, X.; Yang, Y.; Lu, Y.; Sun, Z.; Hussain, S.; Zhang, P. First-principles GGA+U calculation investigating the hydriding and diffusion properties of hydrogen in PuH2+x, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2018, 43, 13632–13638.
  3. Qu, Y.; Duan, X. Progress, challenge and perspective of heterogeneous photocatalysts. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2013, 42, 2568–2580.
  4. Colmenares, J.C.; Luque, R.; Campelo, J.M.; Colmenares, F.; Karpiński, Z.; Romero, A.A. Nanostructured photocatalysts and their applications in the photocatalytic transformation of lignocellulosic biomass: An overview. Materials 2009, 2, 2228–2258.
  5. Yang, X.; Lu, Y.; Zhang, P. First-principles study of native point defects and diffusion behaviors of helium in zirconium carbide. J. Nucl. Mater. 2015, 465, 161–166.
  6. Graetzel, M. Artificial photosynthesis: Water cleavage into hydrogen and oxygen by visible light. Accounts Chem. Res. 1981, 14, 376–384.
  7. Walter, M.G.; Warren, E.L.; McKone, J.R.; Boettcher, S.W.; Mi, Q.; Santori, E.A.; Lewis, N.S. Solar water splitting cells. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 6446–6473.
  8. Armelao, L.; Barreca, D.; Bottaro, G.; Gasparotto, A.; Maccato, C.; Maragno, C.; Tondello, E.; Štangar, U.L.; Bergant, M.; Mahne, D. Photocatalytic and antibacterial activity of TiO2 and Au/TiO2 nanosystems. Nanotechnology 2007, 18, 375709.
  9. Folli, A.; Pade, C.; Hansen, T.B.; De Marco, T.; Macphee, D.E. TiO2 photocatalysis in cementitious systems: Insights into self-cleaning and depollution chemistry. Cement Concerte Res. 2012, 42, 539–548.
  10. Yue, X.Q. Effect of ZnO-loading method on adsorption and decomposition capacities of expanded graphite/ZnO composites for crude oil. Adv. Mater. Res. Trans. Tech. Publ. 2011, 284, 173–176.
  11. Kwon, S.; Fan, M.; Cooper, A.T.; Yang, H. Photocatalytic applications of micro-and nano-TiO2 in environmental engineering. Crit. Rev. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 38, 197–226.
  12. Cai, R.; Hashimoto, K.; Kubota, Y.; Fujishima, A. Increment of photocatalytic killing of cancer cells using TiO2 with the aid of superoxide dismutase. Chem. Lett. 1992, 21, 427–430.
  13. Tian, C.Y.; Xu, J.J.; Chen, H.Y. A novel aptasensor for the detection of adenosine in cancer cells by electrochemiluminescence of nitrogen doped TiO2 nanotubes. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8234–8236.
  14. Kudo, A.; Miseki, Y. Heterogeneous photocatalyst materials for water splitting. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2009, 38, 253–278.
  15. Ganguly, P.; Byrne, C.; Breen, A.; Pillai, S.C. Antimicrobial activity of photocatalysts: Fundamentals, mechanisms, kinetics and recent advances. Appl. Catal. B Environ. 2018, 225, 51–75.
  16. Yalavarthi, R.; Naldoni, A.; Kment, Š.; Mascaretti, L.; Kmentová, H.; Tomanec, O.; Schmuki, P.; Zbořil, R. Radiative and non-radiative recombination pathways in mixed-phase TiO2 nanotubes for PEC water-splitting. Catalysts 2019, 9, 204.
  17. Fujishima, A.; Honda, K. Electrochemical photolysis of water at a semiconductor electrode. Nature 1972, 238, 37–38.
  18. Yuan, Y.J.; Chen, D.; Yu, Z.T.; Zou, Z.G. Cadmium sulfide-based nanomaterials for photocatalytic hydrogen production. J. Mater. Chem. A 2018, 6, 11606–11630.
  19. Tong, H.; Ouyang, S.; Bi, Y.; Umezawa, N.; Oshikiri, M.; Ye, J. Nano-photocatalytic materials: Possibilities and challenges. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2012, 24, 229–251.
  20. Zhang, N.; Wang, L.; Wang, H.; Cao, R.; Wang, J.; Bai, F.; Fan, H. Self-assembled one-dimensional porphyrin nanostructures with enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Nano Lett. 2018, 18, 560–566.
  21. Ma, Y.; Wang, X.; Jia, Y.; Chen, X.; Han, H.; Li, C. Titanium dioxide-based nanomaterials for photocatalytic fuel generations. Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 9987–10043.
  22. Che, W.; Cheng, W.; Yao, T.; Tang, F.; Liu, W.; Su, H.; Huang, Y.; Liu, Q.; Liu, J.; Hu, F.; et al. Fast photoelectron transfer in (Cring)-C3N4 plane heterostructural nanosheets for overall water splitting. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 3021–3026.
  23. Cai, X.; Zhu, M.; Elbanna, O.A.; Fujitsuka, M.; Kim, S.; Mao, L.; Zhang, J.; Majima, T. Au nanorod photosensitized La2Ti2O7 nanosteps: Successive surface heterojunctions boosting visible to near-infrared photocatalytic H2 evolution. ACS Catal. 2018, 8, 122–131.
  24. Singh, D.; Panda, P.K.; Khossossi, N.; Mishra, Y.K.; Ainane, A.; Ahuja, R. Impact of edge structures on interfacial interactions and efficient visible-light photocatalytic activity of metal–semiconductor hybrid 2D materials. Catal. Sci. Technol. 2020, 10, 3279–3289.
  25. Singh, D.; Chakraborty, S.; Ahuja, R. Emergence of Si2BN Monolayer as Efficient HER Catalyst under Co-functionalization Influence. ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2019, 2, 8441–8448.
  26. Hartley, C.L.; DiRisio, R.J.; Screen, M.E.; Mayer, K.J.; McNamara, W.R. Iron polypyridyl complexes for photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Inorg. Chem. 2016, 55, 8865–8870.
  27. Zhang, L.Y.; Yin, S.Y.; Pan, M.; Liao, W.M.; Zhang, J.H.; Wang, H.P.; Su, C.Y. Binuclear Ru–Ru and Ir–Ru complexes for deep red emission and photocatalytic water reduction. J. Mater. Chem. A 2017, 5, 9807–9814.
  28. Greene, B.L.; Schut, G.J.; Adams, M.W.; Dyer, R.B. Pre-Steady-State Kinetics of Catalytic Intermediates of an [FeFe]-Hydrogenase. ACS Catal. 2017, 7, 2145–2150.
  29. Singh, D.; Gupta, S.K.; Sonvane, Y.; Kumar, A.; Ahuja, R. 2D-HfS2 as an efficient photocatalyst for water splitting. Catal. Sci. Technol. 2016, 6, 6605–6614.
  30. Zhao, X.; Yang, X.; Singh, D.; Panda, P.K.; Luo, W.; Li, Y.; Ahuja, R. Strain-Engineered Metal-Free h-B2O Monolayer as a Mechanocatalyst for Photocatalysis and Improved Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. J. Phys. Chem. C 2020, 124, 7884–7892.
  31. Hutton, G.A.; Reuillard, B.; Martindale, B.C.; Caputo, C.A.; Lockwood, C.W.; Butt, J.N.; Reisner, E. Carbon dots as versatile photosensitizers for solar-driven catalysis with redox enzymes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 16722–16730.
  32. Lv, H.; Ruberu, T.P.A.; Fleischauer, V.E.; Brennessel, W.W.; Neidig, M.L.; Eisenberg, R. Catalytic light-driven generation of hydrogen from water by iron dithiolene complexes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 11654–11663.
  33. Yuan, Y.J.; Chen, D.Q.; Xiong, M.; Zhong, J.S.; Wan, Z.Y.; Zhou, Y.; Liu, S.; Yu, Z.T.; Yang, L.X.; Zou, Z.G. Bandgap engineering of (AgIn)xZn2(1−x)S2 quantum dot photosensitizers for photocatalytic H2 generation. Appl. Catal. B Environ. 2017, 204, 58–66.
  34. Sakai, T.; Mersch, D.; Reisner, E. Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution with a hydrogenase in a mediator-free system under high levels of oxygen. Angew. Chem. 2013, 52, 12313–12316.
  35. Han, Z.; Shen, L.; Brennessel, W.W.; Holland, P.L.; Eisenberg, R. Nickel pyridinethiolate complexes as catalysts for the light-driven production of hydrogen from aqueous solutions in noble-metal-free systems. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 14659–14669.
  36. Yuan, Y.J.; Lu, H.W.; Tu, J.R.; Fang, Y.; Yu, Z.T.; Fan, X.X.; Zou, Z.G. A Noble-Metal-Free Nickel (II) Polypyridyl Catalyst for Visible-Light-Driven Hydrogen Production from Water. ChemPhysChem 2015, 16, 2925–2930.
  37. Kagalwala, H.N.; Chirdon, D.N.; Mills, I.N.; Budwal, N.; Bernhard, S. Light-driven hydrogen generation from microemulsions using metallosurfactant catalysts and oxalic acid. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 10162–10171.
  38. Yuan, Y.J.; Ye, Z.J.; Lu, H.W.; Hu, B.; Li, Y.H.; Chen, D.Q.; Zhong, J.S.; Yu, Z.T.; Zou, Z.G. Constructing anatase TiO2 nanosheets with exposed (001) facets/layered MoS2 two-dimensional nanojunctions for enhanced solar hydrogen generation. ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 532–541.
  39. Lin, Z.; Xiao, J.; Li, L.; Liu, P.; Wang, C.; Yang, G. Nanodiamond-Embedded p-Type Copper (I) Oxide Nanocrystals for Broad-Spectrum Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution. Adv. Energy Mater. 2016, 6, 1501865.
  40. Wang, Q.; Hisatomi, T.; Jia, Q.; Tokudome, H.; Zhong, M.; Wang, C.; Pan, Z.; Takata, T.; Nakabayashi, M.; Shibata, N.; et al. Scalable water splitting on particulate photocatalyst sheets with a solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency exceeding 1%. Nat. Mater. 2016, 15, 611–615.
  41. Liu, L.; Peter, Y.Y.; Chen, X.; Mao, S.S.; Shen, D. Hydrogenation and disorder in engineered black TiO2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2013, 111, 065505.
  42. Xu, M.; Gao, Y.; Moreno, E.M.; Kunst, M.; Muhler, M.; Wang, Y.; Idriss, H.; Wöll, C. Photocatalytic activity of bulk TiO2 anatase and rutile single crystals using infrared absorption spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2011, 106, 138302.
  43. Li, X.; Li, Z.; Yang, J. Proposed photosynthesis method for producing hydrogen from dissociated water molecules using incident near-infrared light. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2014, 112, 018301.
  44. Ahmed, M.; Guo, X. A review of metal oxynitrides for photocatalysis. Inorg. Chem. Front. 2016, 3, 578–590.
  45. Yang, X.; Banerjee, A.; Ahuja, R. Probing the active sites of newly predicted stable Janus scandium dichalcogenides for photocatalytic water-splitting. Catal. Sci. Technol. 2019, 9, 4981–4989.
  46. Serpone, N.; Emeline, A.; Ryabchuk, V.; Kuznetsov, V. Why do hydrogen and oxygen yields from semiconductor-based photocatalyzed water splitting remain disappointingly low? Intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting surface redox reactions. ACS Energy Lett. 2016, 1, 931–948.
  47. Fukuzumi, S.; Hong, D.; Yamada, Y. Bioinspired photocatalytic water reduction and oxidation with earth-abundant metal catalysts. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 3458–3467.
  48. Guzman, F.; Chuang, S.S.; Yang, C. Role of methanol sacrificing reagent in the photocatalytic evolution of hydrogen. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res 2013, 52, 61–65.
  49. Salzl, S.; Ertl, M.; Knör, G. Evidence for photosensitised hydrogen production from water in the absence of precious metals, redox-mediators and co-catalysts. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2017, 19, 8141–8147.
  50. Simon, T.; Bouchonville, N.; Berr, M.J.; Vaneski, A.; Adrović, A.; Volbers, D.; Wyrwich, R.; Döblinger, M.; Susha, A.S.; Rogach, A.L.; et al. Redox shuttle mechanism enhances photocatalytic H2 generation on Ni-decorated CdS nanorods. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 1013–1018.
  51. Wang, J.; Chen, Y.; Zhou, W.; Tian, G.; Xiao, Y.; Fu, H.; Fu, H. Cubic quantum dot/hexagonal microsphere ZnIn2 S4 heterophase junctions for exceptional visible-light-driven photocatalytic H2 evolution. J. Mater. Chem. A 2017, 5, 8451–8460.
  52. Wang, X.; Maeda, K.; Thomas, A.; Takanabe, K.; Xin, G.; Carlsson, J.M.; Domen, K.; Antonietti, M. A metal-free polymeric photocatalyst for hydrogen production from water under visible light. Nat. Mater. 2009, 8, 76–80.
  53. Han, Z.; Qiu, F.; Eisenberg, R.; Holland, P.L.; Krauss, T.D. Robust photogeneration of H2 in water using semiconductor nanocrystals and a nickel catalyst. Science 2012, 338, 1321–1324.
  54. Xu, J.; Cao, X. Characterization and mechanism of MoS2/CdS composite photocatalyst used for hydrogen production from water splitting under visible light. Chem. Eng. J. 2015, 260, 642–648.
  55. Kim, W.; Tachikawa, T.; Majima, T.; Li, C.; Kim, H.J.; Choi, W. Tin-porphyrin sensitized TiO2 for the production of H2 under visible light. Energy Environ. Sci. 2010, 3, 1789–1795.
  56. Ye, C.; Li, J.X.; Li, Z.J.; Li, X.B.; Fan, X.B.; Zhang, L.P.; Chen, B.; Tung, C.H.; Wu, L.Z. Enhanced driving force and charge separation efficiency of protonated g-C3N4 for photocatalytic O2 evolution. ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 6973–6979.
  57. Asahi, R.; Morikawa, T.; Ohwaki, T.; Aoki, K.; Taga, Y. Visible-light photocatalysis in nitrogen-doped titanium oxides. Science 2001, 293, 269–271.
  58. Yang, X.; Banerjee, A.; Xu, Z.; Wang, Z.; Ahuja, R. Interfacial aspect of ZnTe/In2Te3 heterostructures as an efficient catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction. J. Mater. Chem. A 2019, 7, 27441–27449.
  59. Wen, C.Z.; Hu, Q.H.; Guo, Y.N.; Gong, X.Q.; Qiao, S.Z.; Yang, H.G. From titanium oxydifluoride (TiOF2) to titania (TiO2): Phase transition and non-metal doping with enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen (H2) evolution properties. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 6138–6140.
  60. Yu, J.; Zhang, J.; Jaroniec, M. Preparation and enhanced visible-light photocatalytic H2-production activity of CdS quantum dots-sensitized Zn1−xCdxS solid solution. Green Chem. 2010, 12, 1611–1614.
  61. Ning, Z.; Tian, H.; Yuan, C.; Fu, Y.; Qin, H.; Sun, L.; Ågren, H. Solar cells sensitized with type-II ZnSe–CdS core/shell colloidal quantum dots. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 1536–1538.
  62. Chen, X.; Liu, L.; Peter, Y.Y.; Mao, S.S. Increasing solar absorption for photocatalysis with black hydrogenated titanium dioxide nanocrystals. Science 2011, 331, 746–750.
  63. Thimsen, E.; Le Formal, F.; Gratzel, M.; Warren, S.C. Influence of plasmonic Au nanoparticles on the photoactivity of Fe2O3 electrodes for water splitting. Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 35–43.
  64. Wu, H.B.; Hng, H.H.; Lou, X.W. Direct synthesis of anatase TiO2 nanowires with enhanced photocatalytic activity. Adv. Mater. 2012, 24, 2567–2571.
  65. Chen, J.S.; Chen, C.; Liu, J.; Xu, R.; Qiao, S.Z.; Lou, X.W. Ellipsoidal hollow nanostructures assembled from anatase TiO2 nanosheets as a magnetically separable photocatalyst. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 2631–2633.
  66. Meng, F.; Li, J.; Cushing, S.K.; Zhi, M.; Wu, N. Solar hydrogen generation by nanoscale p-n junction of p-type molybdenum disulfide/n-type nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10286–10289.
  67. Wang, X.; Xu, Q.; Li, M.; Shen, S.; Wang, X.; Wang, Y.; Feng, Z.; Shi, J.; Han, H.; Li, C. Photocatalytic overall water splitting promoted by an α–β phase junction on Ga2O3. Angew. Chem. 2012, 124, 13266–13269.
  68. Konta, R.; Ishii, T.; Kato, H.; Kudo, A. Photocatalytic Activities of Noble Metal Ion Doped SrTiO3 under Visible Light Irradiation. J. Phys. Chem. B 2004, 108, 8992–8995.
  69. Maeda, K.; Teramura, K.; Lu, D.; Takata, T.; Saito, N.; Inoue, Y.; Domen, K. Photocatalyst releasing hydrogen from water. Nature 2006, 440, 295.
  70. Maeda, K.; Teramura, K.; Lu, D.; Saito, N.; Inoue, Y.; Domen, K. Noble-metal/Cr2O3 core/shell nanoparticles as a cocatalyst for photocatalytic overall water splitting. Angew. Chem. 2006, 118, 7970–7973.
  71. Maeda, K.; Sakamoto, N.; Ikeda, T.; Ohtsuka, H.; Xiong, A.; Lu, D.; Kanehara, M.; Teranishi, T.; Domen, K. Preparation of Core–Shell-Structured Nanoparticles (with a Noble-Metal or Metal Oxide Core and a Chromia Shell) and Their Application in Water Splitting by Means of Visible Light. Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 16, 7750–7759.
  72. Qu, Y.; Liao, L.; Cheng, R.; Wang, Y.; Lin, Y.C.; Huang, Y.; Duan, X. Rational design and synthesis of freestanding photoelectric nanodevices as highly efficient photocatalysts. Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 1941–1949.
  73. Yang, Z.; Zhang, J.; Kintner-Meyer, M.C.; Lu, X.; Choi, D.; Lemmon, J.P.; Liu, J. Electrochemical energy storage for green grid. Chem. Rev. 2011, 111, 3577–3613.
  74. Zhou, H.; Qu, Y.; Zeid, T.; Duan, X. Towards highly efficient photocatalysts using semiconductor nanoarchitectures. Energy Environ. Sci. 2012, 5, 6732–6743.
  75. Hochbaum, A.I.; Yang, P. Semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 527–546.
  76. Atwater, H.A.; Polman, A. Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices. In Materials for Sustainable Energy: A Collection of Peer-Reviewed Research and Review Articles from Nature Publishing Group; World Scientific: Singapore, 2011; pp. 1–11.
  77. Tafen, D.N.; Long, R.; Prezhdo, O.V. Dimensionality of nanoscale TiO2 determines the mechanism of photoinduced electron injection from a CdSe nanoparticle. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 1790–1796.
  78. She, X.; Wu, J.; Xu, H.; Zhong, J.; Wang, Y.; Song, Y.; Nie, K.; Liu, Y.; Yang, Y.; Rodrigues, M.T.F.; et al. High efficiency photocatalytic water splitting using 2D α-Fe2O3/g-C3N4 Z-scheme catalysts. Adv. Energy Mater. 2017, 7, 1700025.
  79. Han, Q.; Wang, B.; Gao, J.; Cheng, Z.; Zhao, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Qu, L. Atomically thin mesoporous nanomesh of graphitic C3N4 for high-efficiency photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. ACS Nano 2016, 10, 2745–2751.
  80. Sivula, K. Metal oxide photoelectrodes for solar fuel production, surface traps, and catalysis. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4, 1624–1633.
  81. Hisatomi, T.; Kubota, J.; Domen, K. Recent advances in semiconductors for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 7520–7535.
  82. Nicolosi, V.; Chhowalla, M.; Kanatzidis, M.G.; Strano, M.S.; Coleman, J.N. Liquid exfoliation of layered materials. Science 2013, 340, 1226419.
  83. Son, J.S.; Yu, J.H.; Kwon, S.G.; Lee, J.; Joo, J.; Hyeon, T. Colloidal Synthesis of Ultrathin Two-Dimensional Semiconductor Nanocrystals. Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, 3214–3219.
  84. Oh, S.M.; Patil, S.B.; Jin, X.; Hwang, S.J. Recent applications of 2D inorganic nanosheets for emerging energy storage system. Chem. Eur. J. 2018, 24, 4757–4773.
  85. Zhang, H. Ultrathin two-dimensional nanomaterials. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 9451–9469.
  86. Voiry, D.; Mohite, A.; Chhowalla, M. Phase engineering of transition metal dichalcogenides. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2015, 44, 2702–2712.
  87. Fan, Z.; Zhang, H. Crystal phase-controlled synthesis, properties and applications of noble metal nanomaterials. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2016, 45, 63–82.
  88. Chhowalla, M.; Voiry, D.; Yang, J.; Shin, H.S.; Loh, K.P. Phase-engineered transition-metal dichalcogenides for energy and electronics. MRS Bull. 2015, 40, 585.
  89. Ambrosi, A.; Sofer, Z.; Pumera, M. 2H → 1T phase transition and hydrogen evolution activity of MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2 strongly depends on the MX2 composition. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 8450–8453.
  90. Chang, K.; Hai, X.; Pang, H.; Zhang, H.; Shi, L.; Liu, G.; Liu, H.; Zhao, G.; Li, M.; Ye, J. Targeted synthesis of 2H-and 1T-phase MoS2 monolayers for catalytic hydrogen evolution. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 10033–10041.
  91. Qu, Y.; Medina, H.; Wang, S.W.; Wang, Y.C.; Chen, C.W.; Su, T.Y.; Manikandan, A.; Wang, K.; Shih, Y.C.; Chang, J.W.; et al. Wafer Scale Phase-Engineered 1T-and 2H-MoSe2/Mo Core–Shell 3D-Hierarchical Nanostructures toward Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2016, 28, 9831–9838.
  92. Novoselov, K.S.; Geim, A.K.; Morozov, S.V.; Jiang, D.; Zhang, Y.; Dubonos, S.V.; Grigorieva, I.V.; Firsov, A.A. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 2004, 306, 666–669.
  93. Pacile, D.; Meyer, J.; Girit, Ç.; Zettl, A. The two-dimensional phase of boron nitride: Few-atomic-layer sheets and suspended membranes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92, 133107.
  94. Li, H.; Yin, Z.; He, Q.; Li, H.; Huang, X.; Lu, G.; Fam, D.W.H.; Tok, A.I.Y.; Zhang, Q.; Zhang, H. Fabrication of single-and multilayer MoS2 film-based field-effect transistors for sensing NO at room temperature. Small 2012, 8, 63–67.
  95. Late, D.J.; Doneux, T.; Bougouma, M. Single-layer MoSe2 based NH3 gas sensor. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2014, 105, 233103.
  96. Li, H.; Lu, G.; Wang, Y.; Yin, Z.; Cong, C.; He, Q.; Wang, L.; Ding, F.; Yu, T.; Zhang, H. Mechanical exfoliation and characterization of single-and few-layer nanosheets of WSe2, TaS2, and TaSe2. Small 2013, 9, 1974–1981.
  97. Pezeshki, A.; Hosseini Shokouh, S.H.; Jeon, P.J.; Shackery, I.; Kim, J.S.; Oh, I.K.; Jun, S.C.; Kim, H.; Im, S. Static and dynamic performance of complementary inverters based on nanosheet α-MoTe2 p-channel and MoS2 n-channel transistors. ACS Nano 2016, 10, 1118–1125.
  98. Liu, F.; Zheng, S.; He, X.; Chaturvedi, A.; He, J.; Chow, W.L.; Mion, T.R.; Wang, X.; Zhou, J.; Fu, Q.; et al. Highly sensitive detection of polarized light using anisotropic 2D ReS2. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2016, 26, 1169–1177.
  99. Dumcenco, D.O.; Kobayashi, H.; Liu, Z.; Huang, Y.S.; Suenaga, K. Visualization and quantification of transition metal atomic mixing in Mo1−xWxS2 single layers. Nat. Commun. 2013, 4, 1–5.
  100. Chen, Y.; Xi, J.; Dumcenco, D.O.; Liu, Z.; Suenaga, K.; Wang, D.; Shuai, Z.; Huang, Y.S.; Xie, L. Tunable band gap photoluminescence from atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenide alloys. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 4610–4616.
  101. Chen, Y.; Dumcenco, D.O.; Zhu, Y.; Zhang, X.; Mao, N.; Feng, Q.; Zhang, M.; Zhang, J.; Tan, P.H.; Huang, Y.S.; et al. Composition-dependent Raman modes of Mo1−xWxS2 monolayer alloys. Nanoscale 2014, 6, 2833–2839.
  102. Liu, F.; Zheng, S.; Chaturvedi, A.; Zólyomi, V.; Zhou, J.; Fu, Q.; Zhu, C.; Yu, P.; Zeng, Q.; Drummond, N.D.; et al. Optoelectronic properties of atomically thin ReSSe with weak interlayer coupling. Nanoscale 2016, 8, 5826–5834.
  103. Goyal, V.; Teweldebrhan, D.; Balandin, A.A. Mechanically-exfoliated stacks of thin films of Bi2Te3 topological insulators with enhanced thermoelectric performance. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 97, 133117.
  104. Shahil, K.; Hossain, M.; Goyal, V.; Balandin, A. Micro-Raman spectroscopy of mechanically exfoliated few-quintuple layers of Bi2Te3, Bi2Se3, and Sb2Te3 materials. J. Appl. Phys. 2012, 111, 054305.
  105. Du, K.z.; Wang, X.z.; Liu, Y.; Hu, P.; Utama, M.I.B.; Gan, C.K.; Xiong, Q.; Kloc, C. Weak van der Waals stacking, wide-range band gap, and Raman study on ultrathin layers of metal phosphorus trichalcogenides. ACS Nano 2016, 10, 1738–1743.
  106. Castellanos-Gomez, A.; Vicarelli, L.; Prada, E.; Island, J.O.; Narasimha-Acharya, K.; Blanter, S.I.; Groenendijk, D.J.; Buscema, M.; Steele, G.A.; Alvarez, J.V.; et al. Isolation and characterization of few-layer black phosphorus. 2D Mater. 2014, 1, 025001.
  107. Buscema, M.; Groenendijk, D.J.; Blanter, S.I.; Steele, G.A.; Van Der Zant, H.S.; Castellanos-Gomez, A. Fast and broadband photoresponse of few-layer black phosphorus field-effect transistors. Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 3347–3352.
  108. Liu, F.; You, L.; Seyler, K.L.; Li, X.; Yu, P.; Lin, J.; Wang, X.; Zhou, J.; Wang, H.; He, H.; et al. Room-temperature ferroelectricity in CuInP2S6 ultrathin flakes. Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 1–6.
  109. Huang, Y.; Sutter, E.; Shi, N.N.; Zheng, J.; Yang, T.; Englund, D.; Gao, H.J.; Sutter, P. Reliable exfoliation of large-area high-quality flakes of graphene and other two-dimensional materials. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 10612–10620.
  110. Desai, S.B.; Madhvapathy, S.R.; Amani, M.; Kiriya, D.; Hettick, M.; Tosun, M.; Zhou, Y.; Dubey, M.; Ager, J.W., III; Chrzan, D.; et al. Gold-mediated exfoliation of ultralarge optoelectronically-perfect monolayers. Adv. Mater. 2016, 28, 4053–4058.
  111. Coleman, J.N.; Lotya, M.; O’Neill, A.; Bergin, S.D.; King, P.J.; Khan, U.; Young, K.; Gaucher, A.; De, S.; Smith, R.J.; et al. Two-dimensional nanosheets produced by liquid exfoliation of layered materials. Science 2011, 331, 568–571.
  112. Wang, Q.H.; Kalantar-Zadeh, K.; Kis, A.; Coleman, J.N.; Strano, M.S. Electronics and optoelectronics of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2012, 7, 699–712.
  113. Smith, R.J.; King, P.J.; Lotya, M.; Wirtz, C.; Khan, U.; De, S.; O’Neill, A.; Duesberg, G.S.; Grunlan, J.C.; Moriarty, G.; et al. Large-scale exfoliation of inorganic layered compounds in aqueous surfactant solutions. Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, 3944–3948.
  114. Coleman, J.N. Liquid exfoliation of defect-free graphene. Accounts Chem. Res. 2013, 46, 14–22.
  115. Hernandez, Y.; Nicolosi, V.; Lotya, M.; Blighe, F.M.; Sun, Z.; De, S.; McGovern, I.; Holland, B.; Byrne, M.; Gun’Ko, Y.K.; et al. High-yield production of graphene by liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2008, 3, 563–568.
  116. O’Neill, A.; Khan, U.; Coleman, J.N. Preparation of high concentration dispersions of exfoliated MoS2 with increased flake size. Chem. Mater. 2012, 24, 2414–2421.
  117. Feng, J.; Peng, L.; Wu, C.; Sun, X.; Hu, S.; Lin, C.; Dai, J.; Yang, J.; Xie, Y. Giant moisture responsiveness of VS2 ultrathin nanosheets for novel touchless positioning interface. Adv. Mater. 2012, 24, 1969–1974.
  118. Zhou, K.G.; Mao, N.N.; Wang, H.X.; Peng, Y.; Zhang, H.L. A mixed-solvent strategy for efficient exfoliation of inorganic graphene analogues. Angew. Chem. 2011, 123, 11031–11034.
  119. Yi, M.; Shen, Z. A review on mechanical exfoliation for the scalable production of graphene. J. Mater. Chem. A 2015, 3, 11700–11715.
  120. Paton, K.R.; Varrla, E.; Backes, C.; Smith, R.J.; Khan, U.; O’Neill, A.; Boland, C.; Lotya, M.; Istrate, O.M.; King, P.; et al. Scalable production of large quantities of defect-free few-layer graphene by shear exfoliation in liquids. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 624–630.
  121. Liu, L.; Shen, Z.; Yi, M.; Zhang, X.; Ma, S. A green, rapid and size-controlled production of high-quality graphene sheets by hydrodynamic forces. Rsc Adv. 2014, 4, 36464–36470.
  122. Yu, J.; Li, J.; Zhang, W.; Chang, H. Synthesis of high quality two-dimensional materials via chemical vapor deposition. Chem. Sci. 2015, 6, 6705–6716.
  123. Jones, A.C.; Hitchman, M.L. Overview of chemical vapour deposition. Chem. Vapor. Depos. 2009, 1, 1–36.
  124. Somani, P.R.; Somani, S.P.; Umeno, M. Planer nano-graphenes from camphor by CVD. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2006, 430, 56–59.
  125. Pollard, A.; Nair, R.; Sabki, S.; Staddon, C.; Perdigao, L.; Hsu, C.; Garfitt, J.; Gangopadhyay, S.; Gleeson, H.; Geim, A.; et al. Formation of monolayer graphene by annealing sacrificial nickel thin films. J. Phys. Chem. C 2009, 113, 16565–16567.
  126. Reina, A.; Jia, X.; Ho, J.; Nezich, D.; Son, H.; Bulovic, V.; Dresselhaus, M.S.; Kong, J. Large area, few-layer graphene films on arbitrary substrates by chemical vapor deposition. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 30–35.
  127. Kim, G.; Jang, A.R.; Jeong, H.Y.; Lee, Z.; Kang, D.J.; Shin, H.S. Growth of high-crystalline, single-layer hexagonal boron nitride on recyclable platinum foil. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 1834–1839.
  128. Zhao, Y.; Luo, X.; Zhang, J.; Wu, J.; Bai, X.; Wang, M.; Jia, J.; Peng, H.; Liu, Z.; Quek, S.Y.; et al. Interlayer vibrational modes in few-quintuple-layer Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 two-dimensional crystals: Raman spectroscopy and first-principles studies. Phys. Rev. B 2014, 90, 245428.
  129. Zheng, W.; Xie, T.; Zhou, Y.; Chen, Y.; Jiang, W.; Zhao, S.; Wu, J.; Jing, Y.; Wu, Y.; Chen, G.; et al. Patterning two-dimensional chalcogenide crystals of Bi2 Se3 and In2Se3 and efficient photodetectors. Nat. Commun. 2015, 6, 1–8.
  130. Mannix, A.J.; Zhou, X.F.; Kiraly, B.; Wood, J.D.; Alducin, D.; Myers, B.D.; Liu, X.; Fisher, B.L.; Santiago, U.; Guest, J.R.; et al. Synthesis of borophenes: Anisotropic, two-dimensional boron polymorphs. Science 2015, 350, 1513–1516.
  131. Gogotsi, Y. Chemical vapour deposition: Transition metal carbides go 2D. Nat. Mater. 2015, 14, 1079–1080.
  132. Xu, C.; Wang, L.; Liu, Z.; Chen, L.; Guo, J.; Kang, N.; Ma, X.L.; Cheng, H.M.; Ren, W. Large-area high-quality 2D ultrathin Mo2C superconducting crystals. Nat. Mater. 2015, 14, 1135–1141.
  133. Fleurence, A.; Friedlein, R.; Ozaki, T.; Kawai, H.; Wang, Y.; Yamada-Takamura, Y. Experimental evidence for epitaxial silicene on diboride thin films. Phy. Rev. Lett. 2012, 108, 245501.
  134. Zhan, Y.; Liu, Z.; Najmaei, S.; Ajayan, P.M.; Lou, J. Large-area vapor-phase growth and characterization of MoS2 atomic layers on a SiO2 substrate. Small 2012, 8, 966–971.
  135. Zhang, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Ji, Q.; Ju, J.; Yuan, H.; Shi, J.; Gao, T.; Ma, D.; Liu, M.; Chen, Y.; et al. Controlled growth of high-quality monolayer WS2 layers on sapphire and imaging its grain boundary. ACS Nano 2013, 7, 8963–8971.
  136. Wang, X.; Gong, Y.; Shi, G.; Chow, W.L.; Keyshar, K.; Ye, G.; Vajtai, R.; Lou, J.; Liu, Z.; Ringe, E.; et al. Chemical vapor deposition growth of crystalline monolayer MoSe2. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 5125–5131.
  137. Docherty, C.J.; Parkinson, P.; Joyce, H.J.; Chiu, M.H.; Chen, C.H.; Lee, M.Y.; Li, L.J.; Herz, L.M.; Johnston, M.B. Ultrafast transient terahertz conductivity of monolayer MoS2 and WSe2 grown by chemical vapor deposition. ACS Nano 2014, 8, 11147–11153.
  138. Zhang, M.; Zhu, Y.; Wang, X.; Feng, Q.; Qiao, S.; Wen, W.; Chen, Y.; Cui, M.; Zhang, J.; Cai, C.; et al. Controlled synthesis of ZrS2 monolayer and few layers on hexagonal boron nitride. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 7051–7054.
  139. Keyshar, K.; Gong, Y.; Ye, G.; Brunetto, G.; Zhou, W.; Cole, D.P.; Hackenberg, K.; He, Y.; Machado, L.; Kabbani, M.; et al. Chemical vapor deposition of monolayer rhenium disulfide (ReS2). Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 4640–4648.
  140. Liu, L.; Park, J.; Siegel, D.A.; McCarty, K.F.; Clark, K.W.; Deng, W.; Basile, L.; Idrobo, J.C.; Li, A.P.; Gu, G. Heteroepitaxial growth of two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride templated by graphene edges. Science 2014, 343, 163–167.
  141. De Parga, A.V.; Calleja, F.; Borca, B.; Passeggi Jr, M.; Hinarejos, J.; Guinea, F.; Miranda, R. Periodically rippled graphene: Growth and spatially resolved electronic structure. Phy. Rev. Lett. 2008, 100, 056807.
  142. Li, M.Y.; Shi, Y.; Cheng, C.C.; Lu, L.S.; Lin, Y.C.; Tang, H.L.; Tsai, M.L.; Chu, C.W.; Wei, K.H.; He, J.H.; et al. Epitaxial growth of a monolayer WSe2-MoS2 lateral p-n junction with an atomically sharp interface. Science 2015, 349, 524–528.
  143. Yu, Y.; Hu, S.; Su, L.; Huang, L.; Liu, Y.; Jin, Z.; Purezky, A.A.; Geohegan, D.B.; Kim, K.W.; Zhang, Y.; et al. Equally efficient interlayer exciton relaxation and improved absorption in epitaxial and nonepitaxial MoS2/WS2 heterostructures. Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 486–491.
  144. Heo, H.; Sung, J.H.; Jin, G.; Ahn, J.H.; Kim, K.; Lee, M.J.; Cha, S.; Choi, H.; Jo, M.H. Rotation-Misfit-Free Heteroepitaxial Stacking and Stitching Growth of Hexagonal Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers by Nucleation Kinetics Controls. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 3803–3810.
  145. Duesberg, G.S. Heterojunctions in 2D semiconductors: A perfect match. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 1075–1076.
  146. Li, M.Y.; Chen, C.H.; Shi, Y.; Li, L.J. Heterostructures based on two-dimensional layered materials and their potential applications. Mater. Today 2016, 19, 322–335.
  147. Shi, Z.T.; Kang, W.; Xu, J.; Sun, Y.W.; Jiang, M.; Ng, T.W.; Xue, H.T.; Denis, Y.; Zhang, W.; Lee, C.S. Hierarchical nanotubes assembled from MoS2-carbon monolayer sandwiched superstructure nanosheets for high-performance sodium ion batteries. Nano Energy 2016, 22, 27–37.
  148. Xie, J.; Zhang, H.; Li, S.; Wang, R.; Sun, X.; Zhou, M.; Zhou, J.; Lou, X.W.; Xie, Y. Defect-rich MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets with additional active edge sites for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 5807–5813.
  149. Xie, J.; Zhang, J.; Li, S.; Grote, F.; Zhang, X.; Zhang, H.; Wang, R.; Lei, Y.; Pan, B.; Xie, Y. Controllable disorder engineering in oxygen-incorporated MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets for efficient hydrogen evolution. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17881–17888.
  150. Cai, L.; He, J.; Liu, Q.; Yao, T.; Chen, L.; Yan, W.; Hu, F.; Jiang, Y.; Zhao, Y.; Hu, T.; et al. Vacancy-induced ferromagnetism of MoS2 nanosheets. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 2622–2627.
  151. Song, H.J.; You, S.; Jia, X.H.; Yang, J. MoS2 nanosheets decorated with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles and their ultrafast adsorption for wastewater treatment. Ceram. Int. 2015, 41, 13896–13902.
  152. Jeong, S.; Yoo, D.; Jang, J.t.; Kim, M.; Cheon, J. Well-defined colloidal 2-D layered transition-metal chalcogenide nanocrystals via generalized synthetic protocols. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 18233–18236.
  153. Gupta, A.; Sakthivel, T.; Seal, S. Recent development in 2D materials beyond graphene. Prog. Mater. Sci. 2015, 73, 44–126.
  154. Wang, L.; Sun, C.; Xu, L.; Qian, Y. Convenient synthesis and applications of gram scale boron nitride nanosheets. Catal. Sci. Technol. 2011, 1, 1119–1123.
  155. Zhang, N.; Liu, X.; Yi, R.; Shi, R.; Gao, G.; Qiu, G. Selective and controlled synthesis of single-crystalline yttrium hydroxide/oxide nanosheets and nanotubes. J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 17788–17795.
  156. Yang, S.; Gong, Y.; Liu, Z.; Zhan, L.; Hashim, D.P.; Ma, L.; Vajtai, R.; Ajayan, P.M. Bottom-up approach toward single-crystalline VO2-graphene ribbons as cathodes for ultrafast lithium storage. Nano Lett. 2013, 13, 1596–1601.
  157. Shen, J.; Dong, P.; Baines, R.; Xu, X.; Zhang, Z.; Ajayan, P.M.; Ye, M. Controlled synthesis and comparison of NiCo2S4/graphene/2D TMD ternary nanocomposites for high-performance supercapacitors. Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 9251–9254.
  158. Shen, J.; Ji, J.; Dong, P.; Baines, R.; Zhang, Z.; Ajayan, P.M.; Ye, M. Novel FeNi2S4/TMD-based ternary composites for supercapacitor applications. J. Mater. Chem. A 2016, 4, 8844–8850.
  159. Meng, F.; Hong, Z.; Arndt, J.; Li, M.; Zhi, M.; Yang, F.; Wu, N. Visible light photocatalytic activity of nitrogen-doped La2Ti2O7 nanosheets originating from band gap narrowing. Nano Res. 2012, 5, 213–221.
  160. Ghuman, K.K.; Hoch, L.B.; Szymanski, P.; Loh, J.Y.; Kherani, N.P.; El-Sayed, M.A.; Ozin, G.A.; Singh, C.V. Photoexcited surface frustrated Lewis pairs for heterogeneous photocatalytic CO2 reduction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 1206–1214.
  161. Hoch, L.B.; Szymanski, P.; Ghuman, K.K.; He, L.; Liao, K.; Qiao, Q.; Reyes, L.M.; Zhu, Y.; El-Sayed, M.A.; Singh, C.V.; et al. Carrier dynamics and the role of surface defects: Designing a photocatalyst for gas-phase CO2 reduction. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016, 113, E8011–E8020.
More