Defects are usually regarded as imperfections in materials that could significantly degrade their performance. However, at the nanoscale, defects (e.g. dopants, vacancies) can be exploited to generate novel and useful materials and devices. Therefore, defect engineering of 2D materials is becoming an important research line so far. In this contribution, I will summarize our progress on the defect engineering of low-dimensional materials, especially the controllable construction, atomic identification of lattice defects (dopants, vacancies, interfaces, etc.) and their high-performance/new-principle applications in diverse fields including ultrasensitive molecular detection, highly efficient electrocatalysis, electrical/thermal rectification, energy conversion/storage, etc. In particular, we achieved some exciting progress on the atomic scale visualization of defect configurations[1]. Much enhanced Raman scattering effect of 2D layered materials induced by lattice defects was unveiled for ultrasensitive molecular sensing [2, 3]. By engineering the defects in low-dimensional materials, highly efficient electrocatalysis for clean energy production were achieved [4-6]. More recently, we achieved electrical and thermal rectification simultaneously based on as-grown monolayer lateral heterojunction with zigzag interface for the first time [7]. The discovery provides the opportunity to develop more effective heat dissipation in highly integrated circuits.

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