Research in nanostructured materials is a rapidly growing multidiscipline area of science. There are numerous methods of synthesizing high quality materials in the nanosize regime, with each method having it's own merits. In this paper I would present an efficient route to high quality nanoparticles which would be useful for applications in device fabrication. The synthesis of PtS and PdS nanoparticles and thin films would be described. Single molecular precursors containing both the metal and chalcogenide are thermolysed in a high boiling poit solvent, tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) resulting in TOPO capped nanoparticles of PtS and PdS. The optical and structural properties of the materials confirm that the material is nanosized. In addition the synthesis of CuS, CuSe and CuInSe2 nanoparticles using single molecule precursors would also be described. The optical and structural properties of the materials are studied in detail. The platinum and palladium nanoparticles could be potentially useful in catalysis whereas the copper chalcogenides are used in solar cells.