TMDCs and related vdW-heterostructures: a gap analysis of hybrid synthesis and the realization of optimal properties for practical applications, current challenges, and future prospects

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials like transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) nanosheets and their heterostructures have attracted considerable attention owing to their diverse properties. The growth of defect-free and scalable TMDCs is a major concern nowadays to utilize their real potential in a wide range of applications like nano-electronics, photonics, sensing, energy storage, optoelectronics, catalysis, and biomedicine. To overcome this issue, there is a dire need to understand the gaps and limitations in their fabrication techniques. This paper focuses on synthesis gaps and categorizes applications of TMDCs based on their ideal properties by summarizing the roadmap for their fabrication and screening, experimentally and theoretically, with special reference to density functional theory (DFT) based calculations and some basics of machine learning that support the numerical simulation in many domains. Finally, the difficulties and obstacles that arise while applying TMDCs in the real-world industry are also debated. Greater dedication is required to overcome the obstacles to fully exploit the potential of TMDCs.