Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) consist of over 40 compounds. Complex metal TMDs assume the 1T phase where the transition-metal atom coordination is octahedral. The 2H phase is stable in semiconducting TMDs where the coordination of metal atoms is trigonal prismatic. Stability issues have hampered the study of interesting phenomena in two-dimensional 1T phase TMDs. Phase conversion in TMDs involves transformation by chemistry at room temperature and pressure. It is possible to convert 2H phase 2D TMDs to the 1T phase or locally pattern the 1T phase on the 2H phase. The chemically converted 1T phase 2D TMDs exhibit interesting properties that are being exploited for catalysis, source and drain electrodes in field-effect transistors, and energy storage. We summarize the key properties of 2D 1T phase TMDs and their applications as electrodes for energy and electronics.

The charge transport properties in a mixture of regio-regular (poly 3-hexylthiophene) (RR-P3HT) and Zinc Oxide nano particle (ZnO) have been studied using the photoinduced charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (PhotoCELIV) technique. We have studied the effect of ZnO nanoparticle size (12 nm and 50 nm) on the charge transport properties by fixing the composition ratio of P3HT/ZnO hybrid. The PhotoCELIV mobility in P3HT/50nm-ZnO at room temperature is found to be 7.8×10−5cm2/Vs at an applied electric field of 2.5 × 104 V/cm, which increases to 1.7×10−4cm2/Vs for P3HT/12nm-ZnO composite. The temperature and electric field dependence of charge mobility in these composites have been studied and analysed using Gaussian disorder formalism. The obtained results suggest that the charge transport properties in P3HT/ZnO composite, at low ZnO concentrations, can be tuned by varying the size of the nanoparticle.

To examine the potential to apply chemically modified surfaces in organic thin film transistors (TFT), we report the synthesis and characterization of two tailored series of oligothiophene compounds. The oligomers have thiol end groups for coupling to gold electrodes and have regio-regular alkyl substitutions corresponding to Head-Head (HH-) and Head-Tail (HT-) molecular conformations. Variations in chain length, structures and end groups have enabled a detailed study of the deposition of films from solution and the films' properties.

ZnO nanorods are grown by hydrothermal synthesis on a GaN substrate. The nanorods are charcterised by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and electron diffraction. A phenomenological model is proposed to predict the areal density and rod length.

A honeycomb-like SiC reconstructed surface with regular, periodic porosity in the nano-scale range has been used as an effective template for the formation of monodispersed Co nanoclusters. In-situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to study the nucleation process of the Co nanoclusters on this template. The deposition of Co at different substrate temperature was investigated by STM. It is found that the failure in the deposition of Co nanoclusters on the SiC honeycomb template with substrate temperatures higher than room temperature (RT) might be due to the high desorption rate of the adsorbed Co atoms.