Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition of Transition Metal Selenide Thin Films

COPYRIGHT This is a thesis accepted for a Higher Degree of the University of London. It is an unpublished typescript and the copyright is held by the author. All persons consulting this thesis must read and abide by the Copyright Declaration below. COPYRIGHT DECLARATION I recognise that the copyright of the above-described thesis rests with the author and that no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. LOANS Theses may not be lent to individuals, but the Senate House Library may lend a copy to approved libraries within the United Kingdom, for consultation solely on the premises of those libraries. Application should be made to: Inter-Library Loans, REPRODUCTION University of London theses may not be reproduced without explicit written permission from the Senate House Library. Enquiries should be addressed to the Theses Section of the Library. Regulations concerning reproduction vary according to the date of acceptance of the thesis and are listed below as guidelines. All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Declaration I, Nicolas D. Boscher, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Abstract Abstract This thesis investigates the formation of thin films of metal selenides via atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD). The films and powders The APCVD reaction of TiCl4, [V(NMe2)4] and NbCl5 with fBu2Se were respectively found to be a convenient route to stable and crystalline titanium, vanadium and niobium diselenide films. The use of VCU and VOCI3 showed that they were both found unsuitable for producing VSe2 from the APCVD reaction with ?Bu2Se. Molybdenum and tungsten diselenide films were respectively synthesised using M0 CI5 and WC16 with Et2Se. The WSe2 films produced were highly hydrophobic with contact angles for water droplets in the range of 135-145°. Furthermore these surfaces were highly adherent for water droplets — that did not roll or slide even at a tilt angle of 90°. The deposition of tin monoselenide and tin diselenide films was achieved by the …