Aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) of silver films from triorganophosphine adducts of silver carboxylates, including the structure of [Ag(O2CC3F7)(PPh3)2]

Silver carboxylates [Ag(O2CR): R=Me, tBu, 2,4,6-Me3C6H2], fluorocarboxlyates [Ag(O2CRf): Rf=C3F7, C6F13, C7F15] and their phosphine adducts [Ag(O2CR)·nPR3′: R=Me, tBu, 2,4,6-Me3C6H2, R′=Me, Ph, n=2; R=Me, R′=Me, n=3; Ag(O2CRf).2PPh3, Rf=C3F7, C6F13, C7F15] have been synthesised, characterised spectroscopically and used as precursors in the aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition of silver films. All the phosphine adducts produced films, though in general PMe3 adducts, proved more successful than PPh3 analogues. The fluoro-carboxylates and their PPh3 adducts all generated silver films, though the growth rate for the adducts was lower. All these latter films showed carbon impurities while fluorine was also evident in most cases. The X-ray structure of AgO2CC3F7·2PPh3 is also reported.