Isostructural cage complexes of copper with cadmium or zinc for single source deposition of composite materials

Two heterometallic polynuclear complexes, [Cd₂(OAc)₆(μ-O)Cu₄(dmae)₄]·H₂O (1) and its zinc analogue [Zn₂(OAc)₆(μ-O)Cu₄(dmae)₄]·3H₂O (2), were synthesized by simple chemical techniques. These complexes were characterized by their melting point, elemental analysis, FT-IR, APCI-MS and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The complexes consist of a common Cu₄ moiety and a Cd₂ or Zn₂ moiety in 1 and 2 with the space groups C2/c and P, respectively. Thermogravimetric studies prove that they can be easily thermally decomposed and can be used as precursors in aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD) to yield ceramic composites that might have applications in industry and new technologies. Thin ceramic films thus deposited have good adhesion to the substrate and were characterized by SEM, EDX and powder X-ray diffractometry. SEM micrographs show morphologically evenly distributed phases that were identified by PXRD to be Cu–CdO in the case of 1 and Cu–ZnO for 2.