Alcohol‐Assisted CVD of Silver Using Commercially Available Precursors

A novel chemical approach was demonstrated for the growth of high‐quality, silver films by CVD. This concept relies on the catalytic reactivity of cationic silver, and of silver surfaces with alcohols. This leads to high‐purity films using either state‐of‐the‐art precursors or silver salts that have not been yet considered as CVD precursors. The occurrence of the catalytic oxidative‐dehydrogenation of alcohols, considered as the driving force in this process, was shown by in‐situ mass spectrometry (MS). Films of fcc‐Ag with ρ ≤ 2 μΩ cm were grown without any noticeable contamination. Ag(hfac)COD leads to the growth of a (111) highly orientated film on glass at a rate of 1.66 nm min –1 , while polycrystalline films are grown at a rate of 18.5 nm min –1 using AgNO 3 .