Synthesis and characterization of fluorinated β-ketoiminate and imino-alcoholate Pd complexes: Precursors for palladium chemical vapor deposition

The design and synthesis of Pd complexes with two β-ketoiminate or with two imino-alcoholate chelate ligands is reported. In order to establish their structures in the solid-state, methoxyethyl substituted complexes 1c and 2c were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, showing a square-planar local coordination for the Pd atom, but the β-ketoiminate ligands of 1c gave a bent basal plane involving two chelating hexagons, which was in sharp contrast to the boat configuration of the imino-alcoholate ligands observed in the second complex 2c. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) experiments were conducted at deposition temperatures of 250–350 °C. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) were taken to reveal the surface morphologies and grain sizes of the Pd metal thin films. The resulting thin films were found to contain a low level of carbon and oxygen impurities using O₂ as the carrier gas, as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).