New organometallic route to vanadium carbonitride thin films

Chloroimidovanadium compounds Cl3VNR [R = CH3(1), C6H5CH3(2) and t-C4H9(3)] have been prepared, studied by thermal analysis and evaluated as molecular precursors to vanadium nitride by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The decomposition mechanism of 1 and 2 is complex and depends on the nature of the carrier gas, but in both cases the temperature at which decomposition ends (ca. 900°C) is too high for their practical use in low-temperature CVD processes. Compound 3 is volatile and decomposes at quite low temperatures (<250°C), and has been used as a precursor to vanadium nitride in a hot-wall CVD reactor. Shiny, black metal-like thin films have been obtained that have been characterized as vanadium carbonitride by X-ray powder patterns and XPS analysis.