Abstract
Thin Films Molecular layer deposition, an analog of atomic layer deposition, alternates self-limiting reactions to grow materials such as polymers. However, the vacuum conditions in practice generally limit the choices to polymers in which the barrier to reaction is low without solvent assistance, such as those with thionyl or acyl backbones. Shi and Bent show that an ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium, can create a solvation environment for the Friedel-Crafts reaction in vacuum. This ionic liquid did not evaporate at reaction temperatures, wetted a silicon substrate, and formed a eutectic with the AlCl3 catalyst. The authors alternated deposition of isophthaloyl dichloride and diphenyl ether along with the catalyst to grow polyetherketoneketone thin films at a rate of about 5.5 angstroms per reaction cycle. ACS Nano 10.1021/acsnano.0c09329 (2021).
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