I will talk about nanostructured materials having one- or two-dimensional electronic properties. The first example is silicon, which is being investigated for the purpose of applications in energy harvesting. To enhance their performance, silicon is engineered into low dimensional shapes such as nano/microwires and nano-sheets. Another interesting 2D material is graphene, which has been extensively studied in the last decade. I will give a broad overview of it physical properties and applications. A third example of nanostructure to be discussed in this talk is ZnO in the form of nanoparticles or nanowires.