Synthesis of hydrocarbon-vanadium thin films by a low energy plasma focus device

Abstract

Synthesis of hydrocarbon-vanadium thin films by a low energy plasma focus device is reported. The thin films have organometallic structure and organometallic trovacenyl carboxylic acid anhydride (C26H22O3V2) is formed. The vanadium deposition process was achieved in methane atmosphere using different number (10, 20, and 30) of focused shots. Prior to deposition process, surface of pure vanadium substrate and the anode tip were exposed to atmosphere to allow the formation of vanadium trioxide (V2O3) and hydrogen vanadium bronze (HxV2O5) structures. During deposition process, HxV2O5 reacts with methane molecules and C26H22O3V2 molecular structure in nano-grain scale is created. The findings of present study indicates that C26H22O3V2 can be categorized as a semiconductor with band gap energy in the range of 1.20–1.35 eV. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that C26H22O3V2 molecular structure is not Raman active. Characteristics of the V2O3, HxV2O5 and C26H22O3V2 structures are investigated by crystalline, spectroscopy and microscopy methods. The average crystallite size of C26H22O3V2 was roughly 6 nm with almost 16% carbon deposited in the thin films. The Raman results are independent of the number of focused shots.