Nanostructured and heterostructured 2D materials for thermoelectrics

The rapid development in the synthesis and device fabrication of two-dimensional (2D) materials provides new opportunities for their wide applications in a variety of fields including thermoelectric energy conversion, thermal management, and thermal logics. As one important research direction, the possibly poor thermoelectric performance of the pristine 2D materials can be dramatically improved with patterned nanostructures, and stacking of different 2Ds to form layered heterostructures, as well as electrostatic gating, which allow the fine-tuning of both the quasi Fermi level and phonon transport. This article reviews the recent advancement in this direction, with an emphasis on both fundamental understanding and practical problems.