A voltammetric study on the atomic layer deposition of selenium and antimony on platinum electrode

International audienceThe present paper is a detailed study on the on the atomic layer deposition of selenium and antimonyon platinum electrode by electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy (EC-ALE). Voltammetry and coulometry experimentswere performed in this work to investigate the electrochemial behaviors of selenium and antimony on thepolycrystalline platinum electrode. The results show that on Pt substrates Se ions can directly form a UPD layerwith full coverage without the formation of bulk Se. The total Faradaic charge of the UPD Se is calculated to be924 μC cm−2. A Pt electrode adsorbed irreversibly with SbO+ species is obtained by introducing the fresh Sb solutioncontinuously into the electrochemical cell. The irreversibly adsorbed SbO+ species begin to desorb when thepotential is more positive than 0.50 V. The reduction potential of irreversibly adsorbed SbO+ to metallic Sb atomsamounts to 0.11 V. After the irreversibly adsorbed SbO+ species are reduced to metallic Sb, Sb atoms can befurther deposited onto this Sb-modified Pt electrode in the way of UPD to increase the coverage of the metallic Sbmonolayer. The UPD potential of antimony on the Sb-modified Pt electrode amounts to −0.07 V. Finally, a Sbmonolayer with the depositing charge 981 μC cm−2 is obtained. Now the alternative deposition of Sb-Se compoundby EC-ALE method is under study