Synthesis, structure and thermochemistry of selected group 11 and 12 metal compounds

Novel monovalent gold complexes of amidinates and guanidinates were synthesized in order study their thermal chemistry for the purposes of application as CVD precursors. It was found that these compounds decomposed to metallic gold in the presence of light. This resulted in the solution phase deposition of gold metal films using gold (I) acetamidinate as the gold source. The films were characterized by SEM, EDS, and XRD.;Monovalent silver guanidinates were synthesized for the same purposes as the gold analogues. These were found to be too unstable to reach the vapour phase and made for poor CVD precursors. The crystal structure of silver (I) dimethyl guanidinate proved to be a trimeric complex.;Gold (I) dimethyl guanidinate proved to be the only sublimable compound. For this reason it was used as a single source precursor in the deposition of gold metal films by thermal CVD. This was obtained at lower operating temperatures than those previously reported in literature. The films were studied by SEM and EDS.