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Effect of nitrogen on valence states of Cu in CuxO by changing the surface chemical potential of oxygen

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Abstract

Because the valence state of metal with variable valences is sensitive to oxidation atmosphere, it is difficult to fabricate single-phased metal oxide with intermediate valence by vapor or vacuum deposition. In this work, the copper valence state in oxides was controlled by introducing a nitrogen flow into the sputtering chamber. The surface chemical potential of oxygen can be efficiently tuned through adsorption competition on the growth surface. The transition process from CuO–Cu2O mixture to single Cu2O was observed with increasing the nitrogen flow rate. For the single-phased Cu2O, the hole concentration was tuned in a range of 2.6 × 1017 to 1.1 × 1018 cm−3.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants Nos. 21601017 and 21521092.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resources Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, People’s Republic of China

    Deliang Chu, Xiaojie Wu, Mingcai Yao & Jian Meng

  2. College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Deliang Chu & Xiang Wang

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, 130022, People’s Republic of China

    Fanzhi Meng

Authors
  1. Deliang Chu
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  2. Xiaojie Wu
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Correspondence to Xiaojie Wu, Fanzhi Meng or Jian Meng.

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Chu, D., Wu, X., Yao, M. et al. Effect of nitrogen on valence states of Cu in CuxO by changing the surface chemical potential of oxygen. J Mater Sci 55, 8843–8849 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-04647-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-04647-x