Synthesis and control of morphology, stoichiometry, and composition of transition metal oxides

Abstract

The study of HWCVD of MoOx led to the development of phase diagrams for the dependence of morphology and stoichiometry on deposition parameters. The knowledge gained studying the HWCVD of MoOx was then shown to translate to the deposition of other binary metal oxides by using tungsten, nickel, and vanadium metal filaments to synthesize their respective transition metal oxides. Additionally, NiMoO4 was synthesized as a proof-of-concept to show that HWCVD can be used to make ternary oxides. Nitridation of samples in an ammonia atmosphere was conducted to explore the potential for conversion of HWCVD grown TMOs to their respective metal nitrides, which are also reported to have catalytic properties. To examine the quality of TMOs grown by HWCVD, samples were electrochemically tested for their electrochromic properties and photoactivity with respect to splitting of water.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are an important class of materials that have found uses in diverse applications, such as heterogeneous catalysts, sensors, and high temperature superconductors, due to their complex surface chemistry and high mobility of lattice oxygen atoms. Point defects such as oxygen and metal atom vacancies significantly perturb the electronic structure of TMOs and profoundly impact their electrical, optical, ferroelectric, photocatalytic, and other functional properties. As a result, significant research is being done to develop synthesis techniques that can produce metal oxides with controllable material properties. In this thesis, the use of hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) was studied with the aim of precisely controlling the morphology, stoichiometry, and composition of TMOs. With molybdenum oxide as the model system, the control of morphology and stoichiometry was achieved by modulation of deposition parameters, such as filament power and gas phase composition.