Seeding the future of nanomaterials: a comprehensive review of nanosheet-mediated growth for energy harvesting, energy conversion, and photodetection applications

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets are ultrathin and well-crystalline entities with abundant crystallographic configuration. Nanosheets are perfect candidates for directing thin film growth. They are also the ideal templates to synthesize novel plate nanomaterials with rich morphological features and controlled crystal configuration due to the synthesis advantages of epitaxial growth and shape regulation. Seeding growth on nanosheets, termed nanosheet seeding growth (NSG), opens up numerous options for fabricating and engineering functional thin films and plate-like nanomaterials at the atomic/nanometer scale. This review summarizes the synthesis principles of NSG and covers the recent developments in this area. The discussion is given in four categories, synthesis of 2D nanosheet templates, deposition of 2D nanosheet thin films, and crystal growth on 2D nanosheets, and the applications of NSG. With this work, we aim to collect the state-of-the-art developments of all the fundamental elements for NSG and summarize the theories of NSG to serve for the future synthesis of functional thin films and nanomaterials.