Perspective on first-principles studies of 2D materials

The successful exfoliation of graphene from graphite has brought significant attention to predicting new two-dimensional (2D) materials that can be realized experimentally. As a consequence, first-principles studies of novel 2D materials become a routine, with thousands of papers published every year. What makes these studies interesting is that they predict new materials which have not been realized yet but should be a panacea for topological insulators, next-generation battery materials, novel solar cell materials, etc. There is no doubt that some of the proposed materials can provide a specific solution and their properties/performance can be confirmed experimentally, at the same time there are many false predictions because of the computational errors or the Lego-land approach to study 2D materials. To reduce the gap between theoretical and experimental works, we perform a systematic review of computational and Lego-land factors that should be minimized in future theoretical works.