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Abstract
The chemistry of low-dimensional layered materials has drawn significant interest with a particular focus on the transition metal chalcogenides, a class of materials with a number of unique properties making them exceptional candidates for next generation electronics. Special interest has focused on the isolation and tunability of these materials and the study of their underlying properties as a result. In Chapter II, we focus on developing synthetic routes to isolate both polycrystalline and single crystalline HfTe3. We find that the synthetic conditions employed in this study must be carefully tailored to isolate single phase HfTe3. Furthermore, we find that deviations in these synthetic routes could inevitably lead to oxidation or the formation of neighboring phases. In Chapter III, we examine the synthesis of HfxZr1-xTe3 solid solutions which we develop by leveraging the chemistry of both HfTe3 and ZrTe3. Our study found that as we increase Hf incorporation into these solid solutions that our synthetic conditions rely more on the chemistry of HfTe3, especially in respect to single phase isolation and crystal growth. Finally, in Chapter IV, we consider the isolation of three new solid solutions including TixZr1-xTe2, TixHf1-xTe2, and TixZr1-xSe2. We found solid solutions of TixZr1-xTe2 and TixHf1-xTe2 are isolated by tuning the synthetic parameters related to the chemistry of TiTe2, ZrTe2, and HfTe2, whereas TixZr1-xSe2 solid solutions are all synthesized using a uniform, but narrow temperature gradient. As a result, these findings further expands the chemistry of novel group IV transition metal chalcogenide materials which can be employed for the development of novel electronics applications and devices.