Recent Developments in Transition Metal Selenide-Based Materials for Energy Storage, Conversion, Generation, Environmental Remediation, and Sensing

With the continuous development of human civilization, the need for fossil fuels is increasing exponentially. Water quality has severely deteriorated in the past decades, and environmental pollution is a potent threat around the globe. As industrialization flourished, it constantly demanded high energy consumption. Therefore, scientists are in continuous search of novel heterogeneous catalysts which can meet the demands for highly cleaner energy production and environmental remediation. Transition metal chalcogenides, especially transition metal selenides (TMSes), have emerged as potential candidates as heterogenous catalysts serving in environmental remediation, energy production, energy storage and sensors. The present article highlights the structural properties of TMSes and their synthesis and characterization methods. Various applications of TMSes include energy generation and environmental remediation applications like photocatalytic degradation of dyes, water splitting, hydrogen evolution, dye-sensitized solar cells, batteries, supercapacitors and sensors of various transition metal selenides are summarized. We hope this review will benefit the readers and provide a preliminary understanding of the TMSes' properties and applications.