Organometallic Deposition of Ultrasmooth Nanoscale Ni film

A. Paszternák1,2, M. Shviro1, D. Zitoun1

1 Department of Chemistry and Bar Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), Bar Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel

2 Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, Budapest, 1117, Hungary

Deposition of nanoscale and smooth Ni film is challenging using wet chemistry. Herein, organometallic (OM) Ni precursor yields colloidal nanoparticles which self-assemble into thin metallic film with uniform thickness on large scale. More precisely, we report on the one-pot synthesis and self-assembly of a monolayer of amorphous Ni nanoparticles on areas as large as 10 µm2, with a thickness as low as 10 nm and a roughness of 1.1 nm (RMS). Interestingly, the reactivity of different complexes, whether OM, namely Ni (η4–C8H12)2 or metal–organic, namely Ni(acac)2, orthogonally depends on whether the reaction is performed on a silicon wafer or in solution. Only the combination of phosphine and amine ligands with OM precursor effectively controls the homogeneity of the film on large scale, while phosphine ligands result in P doping of the amorphous Ni.

Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2014, 16:2534

Link to the paper: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11051-014-2534-8