Newly developed two-dimensional materials for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Due to the increasing environmental and energy issues, hydrogen, as a clean and non-carbon energy source, has received more and more attention in the past decades. Photocatalysis has been known as a promising approach for hydrogen generation and a key measure in solving serious environmental problems. Different from traditional catalysts, such as ZnO and TiO2, two-dimensional (2D) materials display unique advantages to hydrogen production due to their large specific surface area, high charge migration rate, tunable electronic structure and ultra-lightweight [1]. Especially, 2D materials show short migration distance for the generated electrons and holes, leading to the reduction of electron-hole recombination, which is one of the key factors affecting photocatalytic efficiency [2-4].