Heterobimetallic molecular Cu–Ni and Cu–Co complexes [Cu2Ni4(acac)2(dmae)2(dmaeH)2(OH)(TFA)6] (1) and [Cu2Co4(acac)2(dmae)2(dmaeH)2(OH)(TFA)6] (2) [dmae = N,N-dimethylaminoethanol, TFA = trifluoroacetic acid and acac = 2,4-pentanedionate] were prepared and tested as precursors for the deposition of mixed metal oxide composite thin films. The complexes were synthesized by reaction of the tetrameric copper(II) complex [Cu(dmae)(TFA)]4 with M(acac)2·xH2O [M = Ni, x = 2; Co, x = 1] in THF and were characterized by melting point, elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, TG/DTG and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complexes are isomorphous and crystallize in the triclinic centrosymmetric space group P. Aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) studies carried out on (1) and (2) showed that they are promising precursors for the deposition of thin films of crystalline CuO–NiO and Cu2O–CoO composites, respectively. The size, shape, surface morphology, microstructure, chemical composition and crystallinity of the resulting mixed-metal oxide composite thin films were analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The analysis proved that the thin films are crystalline, uniform, smooth and tightly adherent to the substrates.
You have access to this article
Please wait while we load your content...
Something went wrong. Try again?