In the crystal growth of transition metal dichalcogenides by the chemical vapor transport method (CVT), the choice of the transport agent plays a key role. We have investigated the effect of various chemical elements and compounds on the growth of TiSe2, MoSe2, TaS2 and TaSe2 and found that pure 12 is most suitable for growing TiSe2, whereas transition metal chlorides perform best with Mo- and Ta-chalcogenides. The use of TaCI5 as a transport agent in the CVT process allows to selectively grow either polymorph of TaS2 or TaSe2 and the optimum growth conditions are reported. Moreover, by using TaCI5 and tuning the temperature and the halogen starting ratio, it was possible to grow whiskers of the compounds TaS2, TaSe2, TaTe2, TaS3 and TaSe3. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.