The effect of annealing temperature on the optical properties of a ruthenium complex thin film

Abstract The stability of the optical parameters of a ruthenium polypyridyl complex (Ru-PC K314) film under varying annealing temperatures between 278 K and 673 K was investigated. The ruthenium polypyridyl complex thin film was prepared on a quartz substrate by drop casting technique. The transmission of the film was recorded by using Ultraviolet/Visible/Near Infrared spectrophotometer and the optical band gap energy of the as-deposited film was determined around 2.20 eV. The optical parameters such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, and dielectric constant of the film were determined and the annealing effect on these parameters was investigated. The results show that Ru PC K314 film is quite stable up to 595 K, and the rate of the optical band gap energy change was found to be 5.23 × 10 − 5  eV/K. Furthermore, the thermal analysis studies were carried out in the range 298–673 K. The Differential Thermal Analysis/Thermal Gravimmetry/Differantial Thermal Gravimmetry curves show that the decomposition is incomplete in the temperature range 298–673 K. Ru-PC K314 is thermally stable up to 387 K. The decomposition starts at 387 K with elimination of functional groups such as CO 2 , CO molecules and SO 3 H group was eliminated between 614 K and 666 K.