Collaborative Research: Photolytic CVD Processes for Thermally Sensitive Substrates

非技术性总结：使用塑料和其他柔性材料的下一代电子设备有可能在医学、可持续能源和信息技术方面带来革命性的社会效益。开发可靠的、广泛适用的方法，将金属应用于有机和聚合物薄膜等热敏材料，将是生产这些器件的重要一步。 该项目正在开发使用光作为能源的方法，以驱动热敏材料上金属触点的放置。 由于金属可以应用于图案，该方法最终可以用于在柔性电子产品上印刷电路。参与这项研究为研究生提供了在学术或工业生涯中有价值的技术和协作技能。 本科研究人员对拟议的工作做出了重大贡献，这鼓励他们继续接受物理科学和工程学的研究生教育。 为了向公众传达科学的兴奋，该项目的参与者参与了化学和基于化学的纳米技术的公共宣传。技术概要：该项目正在开发光解化学气相沉积（CVD）工艺，用于将金属选择性沉积到热敏材料上，例如有机薄膜。可靠地形成与有机薄膜的稳定金属接触对于从能量收集到传感到有机/分子电子学的许多技术都是至关重要的。 光辅助低温化学气相沉积技术的发展将推动有机电子学的发展，使分子组装成为复杂的器件。 在这个合作项目中，设计和合成的钌，铂和金络合物作为光敏CVD前体，其次是一个筛选过程，涉及识别的主要photoprocess，测定的量子产率的配体损失，阐明热分解步骤，并建模与基板表面上的官能团的反应。 有前途的前体复合物进行光解化学气相沉积实验与自组装单分子膜（SAMs）作为模型基板系统。 自组装膜被用作基底，因为它们具有高度组织化的结构，具有均匀密度的末端有机官能团，这将允许定量研究分子-分子相互作用。此外，SAM可以容易地图案化以产生多功能表面，其用于确定沉积反应的选择性。

Non-Technical Summary:Next-generation electronic devices using plastics and other flexible materials have the potential for revolutionary societal benefits in medicine, sustainable energy and information technology. Development of reliable, widely applicable methods to apply metals to heat-sensitive materials such as organic and polymer thin films will be an important step in the production of these devices. This project is developing methods to use light as an energy source to drive placement of metal contacts on heat-sensitive materials. Because the metal can be applied in patterns, the method could eventually be used to print circuits on flexible electronics. Participation in this research provides graduate students with technical and collaborative skills valuable in either academic or industrial careers. Undergraduate researchers contribute significantly to the proposed work, which encourages them to pursue graduate education in the physical sciences and engineering. To communicate the excitement of science to the general public, participants in the project are involved in public outreach on chemistry and chemistry-based nanotechnology.Technical Summary:This project is developing photolytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes for the selective deposition of metals onto thermally sensitive materials, such as organic thin films. The reliable formation of stable metallic contacts to organic thin films is critical to many technologies from energy harvesting to sensing to organic/molecular electronics. The development of photoassisted low temperature CVD will advance the state-of-the-art in organic electronics by enabling the integration of molecular assemblies into complex devices. In this collaborative project, design and synthesis of ruthenium, platinum and gold complexes as photosensitive CVD precursors is followed by a screening process involving identification of the primary photoprocess, determination of the quantum yield for ligand loss, elucidation of thermal decomposition steps, and modeling reactivity with functional groups on the substrate surface. Promising precursor complexes are subjected to photolytic chemical vapor deposition experiments with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as model substrate systems. SAMs are used as the substrates because they have highly organized structures with a uniform density of terminal organic functional groups that will allow the quantitative investigation of the precursor-molecule interactions. Further, SAMs can be easily patterned to produce multifunctional surfaces, which are used to determine the selectivity of the deposition reactions.