Abstract: Methods for making of nanomaterials from a bulk source material involve heating the material in an inert atmosphere, whereby a material having at least one nanometer scale dimension is formed on a nearby substrate surface. The heated bulk source material forms a vapor phase which is deposited in the form of the nanomaterial on a growth surface of the substrate. The methods require no complex machinery or devices, unlike chemical vapor deposition, and can be tuned to provide different forms of nanomaterials, such as two-dimensional or other crystalline forms. The methods can be used to make two-dimensional semiconductor materials and semiconductor devices.