Structurally and mechanically tunable molybdenum oxide films and patterned submicrometer structures by electrodeposition

Abstract

Abstract1.5 m-thick molybdenum oxide films have been electrodeposited potentiostatically from 0.2 M Na 2 MoO 4 electrolyte onto indium tin oxide (ITO)/glass substrates at pH = 1, 6 and 9. The influence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant on films' adhesion, morphology, degree of porosity, molybdenum speciation, and crystallographic structure has been systematically investigated. The addition of CTAB (0.01 M) to the bath clearly improves film adherence to the substrate, reduces cracking, and increases crystallinity. This has an impact on the physical properties of the films. In particular, both hardness (H) and Young's modulus (E) increase, as determined from nanoindentation tests.The growth of ordered arrays of molybdenum oxide submicrometer structures, including pillars and stripes, by electrodeposition onto e-beam lithographed Au/Ti/Si substrates is also reported.

Nanocolumnar Crystalline Vanadium Oxide-Molybdenum Oxide Antireflective Smart Thin Films with Superior Nanomechanical Properties

“…This nanohardness is 6.3 times higher than the nanohardness of 0.2 GPa reported earlier by us937, for the undoped sputtered vanadium oxide thin films deposited on silicon substrates. Further, the nanohardness values of pure molybdenum oxide films are reported to be up to as high as e.g., 1.34 GPa62 and 2.4 GPa63. These data were of the same order of magnitude as the nanohardness of the present VO-MO thin films.…”

Brookite: Nothing New under the Sun?

“…Different polymorphs have distinct chemico-physical properties, such as electronic and optical properties, magnetism [2], ion conductivity [3], photo/electro-chromism [4], and surface energy and atom arrangement, which in turn affect the material performance in various applications, such as sensing [5] and photocatalysis [6,7]. Rationalizing the effect of crystal structure on the performance of a photocatalytic material is a pivotal research goal, since both Fe 2 O 3 and TiO 2 , the most investigated and widely used photocatalysts, may exist in different crystal structures [7,8].…”

Ferromagnetic-like behaviour in bismuth ferrite films prepared by electrodeposition and subsequent heat treatment

“…These cracks are frequently observed in metal oxides produced by electrodeposition in aqueous solutions. 34…”

“…Besides its obvious use for the growth of pure metals and metallic alloys, electrodeposition is a powerful methodology that can be utilized for the preparation of semiconducting metal oxides, hydroxides and chalcogenides, either in the form of lms or nanostructures. [33][34][35][36] So far, investigation on BFO electrodeposition has been very scarce and the results have not been fully satisfactory in the sense that they lack a clear and unambiguous structural characterisation. [37][38][39] Moreover, in these previous works, emphasis was laid on the electrochemical performance of the materials (i.e., BFO nanoake and thin lms electrodes were applied in supercapacitor applications).…”