The rapid development in the synthesis and device fabrication of 2D materials provides new opportunities for their wide applications in a variety of fields including thermoelectric energy conversion, thermal management, and thermal logics. As one important research direction, the possibly poor thermoelectric performance of the pristine 2D materials can be dramatically improved with patterned nanostructures, stacking of different 2Ds to form layered heterostructures, and electrostatic gating allowing fine-tuning of the quasi Fermi-level. This article reviews the recent advancement in this direction, with emphasis on both fundamental understanding and practical problems.