Synthesis, Structural Studies and Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition of Precursors towards Zinc Chalcogenides

This work is concerned with the design, synthesis, isolation and subsequent aerosolassisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) of precursors towards the zinc chalcogenide materials: zinc oxide (ZnO) and zinc oxysulfide (Zn(O,S)). Throughout this thesis, emphasis is placed on elucidating the relationship between the molecular structure of the precursor and the functional properties of the resultant material. Chapter 3 explores this relationship for a series of six precursors bearing !-ketoimine and !-aminoenoate ligands towards ZnO thin films via AACVD. The deposition of ZnO thin films has been an area of interest in the materials chemistry community due to its importance as a semiconductor in optoelectronic devices. Thin film quality is of paramount importance in these applications and as such, precursor design remains a research priority. Chapter 4 describes the synthesis and characterisation of a family of heteroleptic zinc thioureide complexes with a view to application as single source precursors for the AACVD of Zn(O,S), as well as being interesting synthetic targets in their own right. The scarcity of reports of the AACVD of Zn(O,S) via a single source precursor in the literature to date may not just be due to the fact that this is an emerging material, but also due to the lack of a suitable precursor. Chapter 5 explores the combinatorial analysis of Zn(O,S) films in order to better understand the effects of intermediate compositions on the optoelectronic properties of the material. The analysis of films from both commercially available precursors and a novel precursor is undertaken and in the latter case, emphasis is placed on the molecular properties of the precursor and the effect this has on the deposited Zn(O,S) films