Nanomaterials (Feb 2022)

Controlled Deposition of Nanostructured Hierarchical TiO<sub>2</sub> Thin Films by Low Pressure Supersonic Plasma Jets

  • Cecilia Piferi,
  • Chiara Carra,
  • Kateryna Bazaka,
  • Hector Eduardo Roman,
  • Elisa Camilla Dell’Orto,
  • Vittorio Morandi,
  • Igor Levchenko,
  • Claudia Riccardi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12030533
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 3
p. 533

Abstract

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Plasma-assisted supersonic jet deposition (PA-SJD) is a precise technique for the fabrication of thin films with a desired nanostructured morphology. In this work, we used quadrupole mass spectrometry of the neutral species in the jet and the extensive characterization of TiO2 films to improve our understanding of the relationship between jet chemistry and film properties. To do this, an organo–metallic precursor (titanium tetra–isopropoxide or TTIP) was first dissociated using a reactive argon–oxygen plasma in a vacuum chamber and then delivered into a second, lower pressure chamber through a nozzle. The pressure difference between the two chambers generated a supersonic jet carrying nanoparticles of TiO2 in the second chamber, and these were deposited onto the surface of a substrate located few centimeters away from the nozzle. The nucleation/aggregation of the jet nanoparticles could be accurately tuned by a suitable choice of control parameters in order to produce the required structures. We demonstrate that high-quality films of up to several µm in thickness and covering a surface area of few cm2 can be effectively produced using this PA-SJD technique.

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