The growth direction of nanowires (NWs) can change during synthesis as a result of stochastic processes or modulation of certain growth conditions. This phenomenon is known as kinking. Although deviations from a uniform vertical growth are typically considered to be undesirable, kinking opens a route for additional tweaking of the characteristics and functionalities of NWs in a controllable manner, thus extending the range of potential applications. In the present Review, we give an insight into the kinking mechanisms and summarize the most crucial factors that can lead to kinking of NWs during synthesis. Additionally, the properties and applications of kinked NWs are discussed.

Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) MoS${}_2$ and WS${}_2$ monolayers (MLs) deposited atop of crystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) and graphene-like ZnO (g-ZnO) substrates have been investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT) using PBE and GLLBSC exchange-correlation functionals. In this work, the electronic structure and optical properties of studied hybrid nanomaterials are described in view of the influence of ZnO substrates thickness on the MoS${}_2$@ZnO and WS${}_2$@ZnO two-dimensional (2D) nanocomposites. The thicker ZnO substrate not only triggers the decrease of the imaginary part of dielectric function relatively to more thinner g-ZnO but also results in the less accumulated charge density in the vicinity of the Mo and W atoms at the conduction band minimum. Based on the results of our calculations, we predict that MoS${}_2$ and WS${}_2$ monolayers placed at g-ZnO substrate yield essential enhancement of the photoabsorption in the visible region of solar spectra and, thus, can be used as a promising catalyst for photo-driven water splitting applications.