Aerosol-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition of Molybdenum Disulfide and Oxide

Delawar Ashraf, Bhumika, Zahra Ali, Taylor M. Currie, Titel Jurca, Alexander Brodie, Saleh Muhammad, Erik Ferenczy, and Lisa McElwee-White

Department of Chemistry, University of Florida

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a commonly used technique for depositing thin films by vaporizing precursors and introducing them into a heated reactor containing the substrate. The precursors decompose on the substrate to form a thin film. One drawback of this method is the need for volatile precursors. An alternative technique, aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD), involves dissolving the precursor in a solvent, nebulizing the solution, and carrying it into the reactor with a carrier gas. The solvent evaporates, leaving the precursor to decompose into the desired film. This overcomes the limitation of precursor volatility. AACVD has a wide range of applications in many fields including electronics, optics, energy storage, catalysis, and biomedical devices. AACVD of molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum oxide films from single source precursors and the characterization of the resulting material will be discussed.