The Early Steps of Molecule-to-Material Conversion in Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): A Case Study

Transition metal complexes with β-diketonate and diamine ligands are valuable precursors for the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of metal oxide nanomaterials, but the metal-ligand bond cleavage mechanism on the growth surface is not clarified yet. We address this question by Density Functional Theory (DFT) and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) in combination with the Bluemoon (BM) statistical sampling approach. AIMD simulations of the Zn β-diketonate-diamine complex Zn(hfa)₂TMEDA (hfa = 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedionate; TMEDA = N,N,N’,N’-tetramethylethylenediamine) show that rolling diffusion of this precursor at 500 K on a hydroxylated silica slab leads to an octahedral-to-square pyramidal rearrangement of its molecular geometry. The free energy profile of the octahedral-to-square pyramidal conversion indicates that the process barrier (5.8 kcal/mol) is of the order of the thermal energy at the operating temperature. The formation of hydrogen bonds with surface hydroxyls plays a key role in aiding the cleavage of a Zn-O bond. In the square-pyramidal complex, the Zn center has a free coordination position, which might promote the interaction with incoming reagents on the deposition surface. These results provide a valuable atomistic insight on the molecule-to-material conversion process which, in perspective, might help to tailor by design the first nucleation stages of the target ZnO-based nanostructures.