The unique thermoelectricity properties of low-dimensional metal sulfide materials have attracted great attention in sustainable energy conversion fields. The ultrahigh surface area of nanostructured semiconductors in combination with their extraordinary physiochemical, electronic, and optical properties offer the application as promising thermoelectric materials not only due to their environmental stability and earth-abundant elemental composition, but also low thermal conductivity. The huge number of active sides of 2D van der Waals materials like transition metal disulfides (TMDC) and monosulfides (MS), as well as their suitable and tunable band gap offer their application in energy conversion devices. The lacking control of large-scale material synthesis corresponding to specific requirements in commercial material formation processes is still challenging, which triggered us to develop a extraordenary synthetic approach to low-dimensional layered materials MS₂ (M= Mo^IV, W^IV, Ti^IV, Nb^IV, Ta^IV, Sn^IV), MS (M=Sn^II, Ge^II) and their heterostructures. A uniform synthetic protocol towards molecular building blocks leads to the formation of (air)stable precursor classes [M{S(C₂H₄)₂NMe}_x] (M = Mo^IV, W^IV, Ti^IV, Sn^IV, x = 2; M = Ge^II, Sn^II, x = 1). Their reliable thermal decomposition enabled the targeted formation of homogeneous crystalline 2D MoS₂, WS₂, TiS₂, NbS₂, SnS₂ and SnS. The wet chemical syntheses via microwave assisted decomposition of tin based precursors resulted in SnS and SnS₂ nano structures.

These molecular building blocks provide advances in the synthesis, characterization and applications of these low-dimensional materials for sustainable energy conversion applications.