In the surge of recent successes of 2D materials following the rise of graphene, molybdenum disulfide (2D-MoS2) has been attracting growing attention from both fundamental and applications viewpoints, owing to the combination of its unique nanoscale properties. For instance, the bandgap of 2D-MoS2, which changes from direct (in the bulk form) to indirect for ultrathin films (few layers), offers new prospects for various applications in optoelectronics. In this review, we present the latest scientific advances in the field of synthesis and characterization of 2D-MoS2 films while highlighting some of their applications in energy harvesting, gas sensing, and plasmonic devices. A survey of the physical and chemical processing routes of 2D-MoS2 is presented first, followed by a detailed description and listing of the most relevant characterization techniques used to study the MoS2 nanomaterial as well as theoretical simulations of its interesting optical properties. Finally, the challenges related to the synthesis of high quality and fairly controllable MoS2 thin films are discussed along with their integration into novel functional devices.

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The efficient monitoring of the environment is currently gaining a continuous growing interest in view of finding solutions for the global pollution issues and their associated climate change. In this sense, two-dimensional (2D) materials appear as one of highly attractive routes for the development of efficient sensing devices due, in particular, to the interesting blend of their superlative properties. For instance, graphene (Gr) and graphitic carbon nitride g-C3N4 (g-CN) have specifically attracted great attention in several domains of sensing applications owing to their excellent electronic and physical-chemical properties. Despite the high potential they offer in the development and fabrication of high-performance gas-sensing devices, an exhaustive comparison between Gr and g-CN is not well established yet regarding their electronic properties and their sensing performances such as sensitivity and selectivity. Hence, this work aims at providing a state-of-the-art overview of the latest experimental advances in the fabrication, characterization, development, and implementation of these 2D materials in gas-sensing applications. Then, the reported results are compared to our numerical simulations using density functional theory carried out on the interactions of Gr and g-CN with some selected hazardous gases’ molecules such as NO2, CO2, and HF. Our findings conform with the superior performances of the g-CN regarding HF detection, while both g-CN and Gr show comparable detection performances for the remaining considered gases. This allows suggesting an outlook regarding the future use of these 2D materials as high-performance gas sensors.