Organic or hybrid organic-inorganic films can be grown using molecular layer deposition (MLD) using organic precursors or a combination of organic and inorganic precursors [1]. We have pioneered the growth of hybrid organic-inorganic films and demonstrated that ALD/MLD alloys can exhibit tunable mechanical, electrical and optical properties [2]. The pyrolysis of hybrid organic-inorganic films can also form conducting metal oxide-carbon composite films [3,4].
Our current work is focused on the use of MLD films to protect silicon anodes in Li ion batteries [5,6]. This research is performed in collaboration with Dr. Chunmei Ban at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Prof. Sehee Lee in Mechanical Engineering. The mechanical properties of the MLD films can accommodate the large expansion and contraction of silicon during charging and discharging. We are also working on the deposition of all-organic MLD films using spatial ALD methods. These all-organic MLD films have applications for desalination by reverse osmosis and for interlayers in Al2O3 ALD/polymer MLD multilayers for gas diffusion barriers.
1. S.M. George, B. Yoon and A.A. Dameron, "Surface Chemistry for Molecular Layer Deposition of Organic and Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Polymers", Acc. Chem. Res. 42, 498-508 (2009).
2. B.H. Lee, B.Yoon, A.I. Abdulagatov, R.A. Hall and S.M. George, “Growth and Properties of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Metalcone Films Using Molecular Layer Deposition Techniques”, Adv. Funct. Mater. 23, 532-546 (2013).
3. Aziz I. Abdulagatov, Kalvis E. Terauds, Jonathan J. Travis, Andrew S. Cavanagh, Rishi Raj and Steven M. George, “Pyrolysis of Titanicone Molecular Layer Deposition Films as Precursors for Conducting TiO2/Carbon Composite Films”, J. Phys. Chem. C. 117, 17442-17450 (2013).
4. Jaime W. DuMont and Steven M. George, “Pyrolysis of Alucone Molecular Layer Deposition Films Using In Situ Transmission Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy”, J. Phys. Chem. C. 119, 14603-14612 (2015).
5. D.M. Piper, J.J. Travis, M.J. Young, S.B. Son, S.C. Kim, K.H. Oh, S.M. George, C.M. Ban and S.H. Lee, “Reversible High-Capacity Si Nanocomposite Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries Enabled by Molecular Layer Deposition”, Adv. Mater. 26, 1596-1601 (2014).
6. Daniela Molina Piper, Younghee Lee, Seoung-Bum Son, Tyler Evans, Feng Lin, Dennis Nordlund, Xingcheng Xiao, Steven M. George, Se-Hee Lee, Chunmei Ban, “Cross-linked aluminum dioxybenzene coating for stabilization of silicon electrodes”, Nano Energy 22, 202-210 (2016).