For the covalent functionalization methods, functional groups react with active chemical factors in 2D materials, such as the lone pair electrons in BP to form the P-X bonds [
105], chalcogen atoms to be linked or chalcogen vacancies sites to be replaced for 2D metal chalcogenides [
108,
114,
120]. Covalent functionalization of 2D materials can be divided into two catalog, organic and inorganic molecules. For the organic covalent functionalization, several organic molecules had been utilized to enhance the stability of BP upon exposure to ambient conditions
via the formation of covalent bonds, including P-C (C60 [
121], aryl diazonium [
122]), P-O-C (nucleophilic additions [
123]), P-F (perfluorosulfonic acid [
109]), P=N (4-azidobenzoic acid [
124]), Ti-/Ln-P (titanium sulfonate ligand [
120]),
etc. Among these, using diazonium chemistry provides a robust approach for stabilizing 2D materials. Ryder
et al. [
122] have demonstrated an increased stability of BP against oxidative degradation for 3 weeks
via covalent functionalization with aryl diazonium compared with the unmodified BP nanosheets (
Fig 5 a). The chemical modification of BP nanosheets by 4-nitrobenzene-diazonium (4-NBD) and 4-methoxybenzene-diazonium (4-MBD) tetrafluoroborate salts resulted in a controllable p-type doping effect with an enhanced hole mobility and on/off ratio up to 10
6 in FETs. Zhao
et al. [
120] have demonstrated an excellent stability of BP during dispersion in water and exposure to air by surface coordination with titanium sulfonate ligand (TiL
4, L referring to the sulfonic ester group), in which TiL
4 can coordinate with the BP lone-pair electrons. The chalcogen vacancies in TMDs crystal can not only act as active sites for O
2 or H
2O adsorption resulting in degradation, but also for covalent bonding with organic groups to enhance their environmental stability. As an efficient encapsulation strategy, covalent functionalization with organic molecules have also been applied to improve the stabilities of TMDs for repairing their atomic vacancies, such as MoS(Se)
2 [
106,
108,
125-
127], WS(Se)
2 [
114,
128] and SnS
2 [
110], which has been realized by using thiolated molecules like alkanethiol [
125,
127], perfluorodecanethiol (PFDT) [
106] and thiophenol (PhSH) [
114], poly (4-styrenesulfonate, PSS) [
127], aryl diazonium [
129] such as 4-NBD and 4-bromobenzene diazonium tetraborate (4-BBDT), nitrocellulose [
108], ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) [
110]. Recently, Zhao
et al. [
114] have reported that the monolayer WSe
2 surface containing Se vacancies can be functionalized by PhSH and the performance of WSe
2 transistors are improved
via defect healing, which has been directly identified by scanning tunneling microscope (STM) imaging for the first time (
Fig. 5b). For the inorganic covalent functionalization, some inorganic molecules have been proved to efficiently stabilize 2D materials in ambient air, including metal and nonmetal elements, such as transition metals (Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe,
etc.) [
130] and Te [
131], Se [
132], NO
2 [
133]. Zhao
et al. [
133] have demonstrated an air-stable chemical p doping on WSe
2 via covalent bonding with surface absorbed NO
2. A defect-oriented model is proposed where NO
2 chemisorbs on WSe
2 surface and bulk defect sites (
e.g., selenium vacancies), forming stable electron withdrawing WSe
2-x-yO
xN
y species that lead to p-doping.
Fig. 5c depicts three distinct configurations with NO
x chemisorption at the selenium vacancy sites: (ⅰ) WSe
2: O, (ⅱ) WSe
2: NO
2, (ⅲ) WSe
2: NO.