Thermal Decomposition Studies of Organoplatinum Films

 This study examines the thermal decomposition of 1,5-cyclooctadiene platinum (II) chloride organometallic films, deposited by thermal evaporation. The thin film samples were annealed both in air and hydrogen with well-controlled temperature regimes. After annealing, the decomposed thin films were examined by AFM and STM scanning probe, XPS and TEM microbeam analytical techniques. The experimental results confirm that the thermal decomposition products on silicon substrates are composed predominantly of metallic platinum. Annealing in hydrogen can reduce substantially the decomposition temperature of the material from around 250 to 160 °C but the surface morphology of the decomposed films is significantly different to those annealed in air. The metallic nature of the thermally decomposed films was confirmed by bonding configuration recognition, electronic property probing and microstructure analysis.