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Abstract
The chemistry of low-dimensional layered materials continues to draw significant interest due to potential applications ranging from quantum devices to energy storage to superconductors. Group V transition metal crystalline systems and actinide systems are of increasing interest due to their unique magnetic and electrical properties. The synthesis for many of these materials can be conducted via the chemical vapor transport method. In Chapter 2, I focus on the scalability of five tantalum chalcogenide or chalcohalide materials, finding that yield and even crystal dimensions have been improved upon relative to their optimized, lower-scale counterparts. In Chapter 3, I focus on the optimized syntheses of monoclinic actinide trichalcogenides, including α-UTe3, USe3, ThTe3, and the novel α-ThxU1-xTe3 solid solution. I find that crystal yield and size have been optimized to heretofore unseen scales. Finally, in Chapter 4, we focus on the optimized syntheses of orthorhombic actinide trichalcogenides, including β-UTe3 and the novel β-ThxU1-xTe3 solid solution. As a result of polymorph control and isolation by optimizing crystal growth, β-UTe3 crystals underwent advanced characterization. These complementary techniques ultimately elucidated its ferromagnetic nature. As a result, these findings further expand upon the synthetic routes of group V transition metal chalcogenide and chalcohalide materials, and actinide chalcogenides, which can be better characterized and studied, and ultimately employed in their suitable applications.