The ability to grow inorganic thin films with highly controllable structural and optical properties at low substrate temperature enables the manufacturing of functional devices on thermo-sensitive substrates without the need of material postprocessing. In this study, the authors report on the growth of zinc oxide films by direct plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition at near room temperature. Diethyl zinc and oxygen plasma were used as the precursor and coreactant, respectively. The process was optimized with respect to the precursor and coreactant dosing as well as to the purging times, which ultimately resulted in saturated atomic layer deposition growth. The so-obtained films exhibit a polycrystalline pattern with a (100) texture and low amount of incorporated carbon. Furthermore, the possibility to tune crystallite size, refractive index, and bandgap of the films by adapting the plasma radio-frequency power is demonstrated.

Amorphous films of the anticonvulsant drug carbamazepine are easily accessible by various methods, while the crystallization into specific polymorphs represents a challenging and time-consuming task. In this work, the crystallization of drop cast carbamazepine at silica surfaces is investigated by atomic force microscopy and both in situ and ex situ grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. The pristine films grow with low crystallization rates into a triclinic polymorph, exhibiting poor orientational order within films. However, if iminostilbene, a chemical precursor of carbamazepine, is added to the solution, enhanced crystallization rates result. The individual components crystallize phase-separated upon solvent evaporation without the formation of cocrystals. Iminostilbene reduces the time scale of carbamazepine crystallization from several hours to minutes. Besides the change in crystallization dynamics, iminostilbene induces order to the carbamazepine crystallites, evident as a 110 texture. In situ data of intermixed solutions demonstrate that iminostilbene crystallization occurs first. The iminostilbene crystals then act as templates for carbamazepine growth, whereby fully epitaxial growth is suggested from the results. The findings motivate such an approach for other systems, as this solution-processed, intrinsic epitaxial behavior might be employed in up-scaled manufacturing processes.

Automated baseline estimation followed by least squares fitting of copolymer spectrum allows quantification in terms of comonomer volume fraction.

In this study, liquid droplets of 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide have been processed by initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) with a cross-linked polymer film consisting of (hydroxyethyl)methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate to develop free-standing, ion-conductive membranes. We found that the obtained films are solids and have a conductivity of up to 18 ± 6 mS/cm, associated with the negatively charged counterion, indicating no loss of conductivity, compared to the ionic liquid in the liquid state. The membranes were conductive within a large process window and in air, thanks to the fact that the iCVD process does not affect the mobility of the anion in the ionic liquid. Furthermore, we demonstrate that varying the deposition conditions can influence the homogeneity and conductivity of the resulting membranes. The promising results of this study represent an important stepping stone on the way to novel ion-conductive membranes.