Recent advances in tuning the properties of metallic 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides for energy conversion and storage

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as promising materials for sustainable energy applications owing to their tunable electronic properties and layered structures. This review comprehensively examines materials engineering strategies for optimizing TMD performance, including defect engineering, heteroatom doping, strain engineering, atomic-scale modulation, phase engineering, and heterostructure fabrication. These approaches enable precise control over electronic structure, catalytic activity, and electrochemical properties for applications in hydrogen evolution reaction, photocatalysis, batteries, and supercapacitors. We highlight recent advances demonstrating that synergistic combinations of multiple engineering strategies yield superior performance compared to individual approaches. Finally, we discuss remaining challenges regarding scalable synthesis, phase stability, and structure–property correlations, along with future perspectives on artificial intelligence-assisted materials discovery for next-generation energy technologies.