Two-dimensional (2-D) materials of atomic thickness have attracted considerable interest due to their excellent electrical, optoelectronic, mechanical, and thermal properties, which make them attractive for electronic devices, sensors, and energy systems. Scavenging the otherwise wasted energy from the ambient environment into electrical power holds promise to address the emerging energy needs, in particular for the portable and wearable devices. The versatile properties of 2-D materials together with their atomically thin body create diverse possibilities for the conversion of ambient energy. The present review focuses on the recent key advances in emerging energy-harvesting devices based on monolayer 2-D materials through various mechanisms such as photovoltaic, thermoelectric, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and hydrovoltaic devices, as well as progress for harvesting the osmotic pressure and Wi-Fi wireless energy. The representative achievements regarding the monolayer heterostructures and hybrid devices are also discussed. Finally, we provide a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for 2-D monolayer material-based energy-harvesting devices in the development of self-powered electronics and wearable technologies.
| (1) | The scalable production of large-area and integrated devices: the first main challenge is related to the large-scale production of 2-D materials and devices with well-controlled properties, e.g., interfaces and surfaces. The ongoing efforts are limited by the vague potential in scaling up (e.g., low yield and random flake shape through exfoliation), stringent restrictions in growth substrates and conditions (e.g., high temperature, high vacuum, gas control in chemical vapor deposition, or molecular beam epitaxy), small sizes, and/or instability of synthesized materials. This challenge is expected to be solved through the holistic design of materials and cooptimization of the device and fabrication for enabling fundamentally new material technology that can produce scalable, substrate-agnostic, high-performance 2-D energy materials [100, 101] |
| (2) | Improving efficiency and output performance: the extensive understanding of the mechanism of energy harvesting and charge transfer will facilitate the optimization of the output performance of devices to achieve a higher energy conversion efficiency. Also, the development of new energy-harvesting methods based on new principles is attractive and critical |
| (3) | Improving stability and environmental adaptability: due to the atomic thickness of the active material and the wide distribution of the device in the environment, 2-D material devices need to adapt to a variety of environmental conditions and maintain stable performance. The optimization of material properties, device structure, and the incorporation of packaging process would address this challenge |
| (4) | Integrating the energy harvesters for practical, killer applications: the increasing demand for practical applications is the main driving force for the exploration of new energy-harvesting processes. A future study should be steered to develop devices with different functions to meet various application needs, such as implantable soft bioelectronics and wearable electronics. The flat, ultrathin nature of 2-D materials also allows for potential integration in the vertical direction, leading to a 3-D architecture with diverse functionalities and boosted performance compared to planar counterparts. Still, issues such as the electrical interconnection across layers and the reliability/robustness of the related manufacturing process need to be properly addressed [102, 103] |
| (5) | The confluence of many emerging and “traditional” disciplines, e.g., nanomanufacturing, data science, material science, solid-state electronics, and chemistry, is expected to lead to more theoretical and experimental advances in exploring 2-D energy materials, as well as usher in abundant research and development opportunities for implementing novel 2-D energy devices and systems |
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |