Investigation On Structure,morphology And Wettability Of ZrO₂ And ZrN_x Films

In various application fields,hydrophobic materials that can withstand harsh conditions are required.Because of its high hardness,high toughness,and high melting point,cermet films are very ideal hydrophobic materials.In ceramics,the cations with lower electronegativity have lower Lewis acidity,which results in the lower ability to form coordination bonds with hydroxyanions,and the better hydrophobicity of oxide and nitride films.Zirconium oxide and nitride films are widely used in various industries due to their excellent characteristics.Among the transition metals,zirconium has a lower electronegativity,so zirconia and zirconium nitride films have great application prospects in the field of hydrophobicity.In addition,the properties of hydrophobic films are also related to their surface roughness.Many studies have shown that the surface morphology of the films has a very close relationship with the parameters of the preparation process,but because of the complex relationship between them,we need to systematically study the relationship between them if we want to get the thin film structure with the best performance.So far,there are many methods for preparing zirconia and zirconium nitride thin films,such as pulsed laser deposition,ion beam sputtering deposition,magnetron sputtering,atomic layer deposition,chemical vapor deposition and so on.In magnetron sputtering,it is necessary to systematically study the process parameters such as sputtering power,deposition temperature,sputtering pressure,and substrate bias in order to clarify the relationship between the film morphology and wettability.In this paper,we take the deposition of zirconia and zirconium nitride films on a silicon substrate as the research object,and use RF magnetron sputtering as the research method to study the effects of sputtering power,deposition temperature,sputtering pressure,gas flow ratio and substrate bias on the phase structure,surface morphology,deposition rate and wettability of the films.Research shows that changes in process parameters affect the surface morphology of the film to a certain extent.When the microstructure of the film surface is large and the surface flatness is poor,the hydrophobicity of the film is the best.In this process,we also found that the wettability of the film will change with the time when the film is exposed to the environment.The research method is to place the same film sample in a fixed environment and test its wettability every other period of time.The results show that the contact angle of the film is constantly increasing,and it changes from superhydrophilic to hydrophobic.