Chen Jueyu, Dai Ruijie, Ma Hongwei, Lin Zhijie, Li Yuanchao, Xi Bin
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2025 Mar 21;15(7):474. doi: 10.3390/nano15070474.
In this study, we present atomic layer deposition (ALD) of nickel oxides (NiO) using a new nickel precursor, (methylcyclopentadienyl)(cyclopentadienyl)nickel (NiCp(MeCp)), and ozone (O) as the oxygen source. The process features a relatively short saturation pulse of the precursor (NiCp(MeCp)) and a broad temperature window (150-250 °C) with a consistent growth rate of 0.39 Å per cycle. The NiO film deposited at 250 °C primarily exhibits a polycrystalline cubic phase with minimal carbon contamination. Notably, the post-annealed ALD NiO film demonstrates attractive electrocatalytic performance on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by providing a low overpotential of 320 mV at 10 mA cm, a low Tafel slope of 70.5 mV dec, and sufficient catalytic stability. These results highlight the potential of the ALD process using the NiCp(MeCp) precursor for the fabrication of high-activity catalysts.
在本研究中，我们展示了使用一种新型镍前驱体（甲基环戊二烯基）（环戊二烯基）镍（NiCp(MeCp)）和臭氧（O）作为氧源进行氧化镍（NiO）的原子层沉积（ALD）。该工艺的特点是前驱体（NiCp(MeCp)）的饱和脉冲相对较短，温度窗口较宽（150 - 250°C），每个循环的生长速率恒定为0.39 Å。在250°C下沉积的NiO薄膜主要呈现多晶立方相，碳污染极少。值得注意的是，退火后的ALD NiO薄膜在析氧反应（OER）中表现出有吸引力的电催化性能，在10 mA cm时提供320 mV的低过电位，70.5 mV dec的低塔菲尔斜率以及足够的催化稳定性。这些结果突出了使用NiCp(MeCp)前驱体的ALD工艺在制造高活性催化剂方面的潜力。
