Step-by-step growth of highly oriented and continuous seeding layers of [Cu2(ndc)2(dabco)] on bare oxide and nitride substrates

Abstract

The step-by-step growth of highly oriented and continuous thin films of [Cu₂(ndc)₂(dabco)] (1) at 50 °C was studied and compared with growth directly from solvothermal mother solution at 120 °C. The substrates were bare unmodified SiO₂, Al₂O₃ grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD), Ta₂O₅ and Si₃N₄. The deposited layers of 1 were characterized via in-plane and out-of-plane X-ray powder diffraction (PXRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The stepwise film formation process was studied by the variation of the reaction conditions and washing procedures indicating an island growth mode and the importance of storage effects. The highly oriented layers obtained by the step-by-step method were used as seeds for the deposition of thicker films of 500–700 nm with the same orientation directly from solvothermal mother solution.