  Transition metals dichalcogenides (TMDs) are an emergent class of
low-dimensional materials with growing applications in the field of
nanoelectronics. However, efficient methods for synthesizing large
mono-crystals of these systems are still lacking. Here, we describe an
efficient synthetic route for a large number of TMDs that were obtained in
quartz ampoules by sulfuric vapor transport and liquid sulfur. Crystals of
metal sulfides MgS, PdS, PtS2, ReS2, NbS2, TaS2, TaS3, MoS2, WS2, FeS2, CoS2,
NiS2, Cr2S3, VS2, In2S3, Bi2S3, TiS2, ZrS3, HfS3, and pure Au were obtained in
quartz ampoules by chemical vapor transport technique with sulfur vapors as the
transport agent. Unlike the sublimation technique, the metal enters the gas
phase in the form of molecules, hence containing greater amount of sulfur than
the growing crystal. We have investigated the physical properties for a
selection of these crystals and compared them to state-of-the-art findings
reported in the literature. The acquired x-ray photoemission spectroscopy
features demonstrate the overall high quality of single crystals grown in this
work as exemplified by ReS2 and CoS2. This new approach to synthesize
high-quality transition metal dichalcogenides single crystals can alleviate
many material quality concerns and is suitable for emerging electronic devices.
