Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of CF3AuCNR Precursors for Focused Electron Beam-Induced Deposition of Gold

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 11; no. 12; pp. 11976 - 11987
• Main Authors: Carden, Will G, Thorman, Rachel M, Unlu, Ilyas, Abboud, Khalil A, Fairbrother, D. Howard, McElwee-White, Lisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 27-03-2019
• Subjects: aurophilic interactions; focused electron beam-induced deposition; Au(I) precursors; gold plasmonic structures; mechanism based precursor design
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b18368

The Au­(I) complexes CF3AuCNMe (1a) and CF3AuCN t Bu (1b) were investigated as Au­(I) precursors for focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) of metallic gold. Both 1a and 1b are sufficiently volatile for sublimation at 125 ± 1 mTorr in the temperature range of roughly 40–50 °C. Electron impact mass spectra of 1a–b show gold-containing ions resulting from fragmenting the CF3 group and the CNR ligand, whereas in negative chemical ionization of 1a–b, the major fragment results from dealkylation of the CNR ligand. Steady-state depositions from 1a in an Auger spectrometer produce deposits with a similar gold content to the commercial precursor Me2Au­(acac) (3) deposited under the same conditions, while the gold content from 1b is less. These results enable us to suggest the likely fate of the CF3 and CNR ligands during FEBID.