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Fabrication of iron carbide by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition

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Abstract

Iron carbide (Fe1−xCx) thin films were successfully grown by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using bis(N, N′-di-tert-butylacetamidinato)iron(II) as a precursor and H2 plasma as a reactant. Smooth and pure Fe1−xCx thin films were obtained by the PEALD process in a layer-by-layer film growth fashion, and the x in the nominal formula of Fe1−xCx is approximately 0.26. For the wide PEALD temperature window from 80 to 210 °C, a saturated film growth rate of 0.04 nm/cycle was achieved. X-ray diffraction and transition electron microscope measurements show that the films grown at deposition temperature 80–170 °C are amorphous; however, at 210 °C, the crystal structure of Fe7C3 is formed. The conformality and resistivity of the deposited films have also been studied. At last, the PEALD Fe1−xCx on carbon cloth shows excellent electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11775028 and 11875090), Collaborative Innovation Center of Green Printing & Publishing Technology (Grant No. 15208), and Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication Project (Grant Nos. Ea201801, KM201810015009, and KM201810015005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Plasma Physics and Materials, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, Beijing, 102600, China

    Xu Tian, Xiangyu Zhang, Yulian Hu, Bowen Liu, Yuxia Yuan, Lizhen Yang, Qiang Chen & Zhongwei Liu

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  1. Xu Tian
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Correspondence to Zhongwei Liu.

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Tian, X., Zhang, X., Hu, Y. et al. Fabrication of iron carbide by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition. Journal of Materials Research 35, 813–821 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.332

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