A Versatile Precursor System for Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition of Main-Group Materials

Suleiman, Norhidayah; Bartlett, Philip N.; Burt, Jennifer; Cook, David A.; Cummings, Charles Y.; George, Michael W.; Hector, Andrew L.; Hasan, Mahboba M.; Ke, Jie; Levason, William; Pugh, David; Reid, Gillian; Richardson, Peter W.; Smith, David C.; Spencer, Joe; Zhang, Wenjian

Abstract

For the first time, a versatile electrolyte bath is described that can be used to electrodeposit a wide range of p-block elements from supercritical difluoromethane (scCH2F2). The bath comprises the tetrabutylammonium chlorometallate complex of the element in an electrolyte of 50×10−3 mol dm−3 tetrabutylammonium chloride at 17.2 MPa and 358 K. Through the use of anionic ([GaCl4]−, [InCl4]−, [GeCl3]−, [SnCl3]−, [SbCl4]−, and [BiCl4]−) and dianionic ([SeCl6]2− and [TeCl6]2−) chlorometallate salts, the deposition of elemental Ga, In, Ge, Sn, Sb, Bi, Se, and Te is demonstrated. In all cases, with the exception of gallium, which is a liquid under the deposition conditions, the resulting deposits are characterised by SEM, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. An advantage of this electrolyte system is that the reagents are all crystalline solids, reasonably easy to handle and not highly water or oxygen sensitive. The results presented herein significantly broaden the range of materials accessible by electrodeposition from supercritical fluid and open up the future possibility of utilising the full scope of these unique fluids to electrodeposit functional binary or ternary alloys and compounds of these elements.

Citation

Suleiman, N., Bartlett, P. N., Burt, J., Cook, D. A., Cummings, C. Y., George, M. W., …Zhang, W. (2016). A Versatile Precursor System for Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition of Main-Group Materials. Chemistry - A European Journal, 22(1), 302-309. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201503301

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 20, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Nov 26, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Deposit Date: Sep 29, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 29, 2017
• Journal: Chemistry - A European Journal
• Print ISSN: 0947-6539
• Electronic ISSN: 1521-3765
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 302-309
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201503301
• Keywords: electrochemistry; main-group elements; metal–metal interactions; supercritical fluids; surface chemistry
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/773721
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/chem.201503301/abstract
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bartlett, P. N., Burt, J., Cook, D. A., Cummings, C. Y., George, M. W., Hector, A. L., Hasan, M. M., Ke, J., Levason, W., Pugh, D., Reid, G., Richardson, P. W., Smith, D. C., Spencer, J., Suleiman, N. and Zhang, W. (2016), A Versatile Precursor System for Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition of Main-Group Materials. Chem. Eur. J., 22: 302–309, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201503301. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.