The preparation and chemical reaction kinetics of tungsten bronze thin films and nitrobenzene with and without a catalyst

Abstract

Microcrystalline tungsten bronze thin films were prepared using wet chemical techniques to reduce a tungsten oxide thin film that was prepared by thermal oxidation of a sputter deposited tungsten metal film on a quartz substrate. The crystallinity of these films was determined by X-ray diffraction and the surface was characterized by X-ray and Ultra-Violet Photoelectron spectroscopy. The total amount of hydrogen incorporated in the film was monitored using absorbance spectroscopy at 900nm. The oxidation kinetics of the film and the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene in hexane were measured as a function of film thickness. A satisfactory fit of the resulting kinetics was obtained using a model that involves two simultaneous processes. The first one is the proton diffusion from the bulk of the film to the surface, and the second is a reaction of the surface protons with the oxidants. Finally, the dependence of the reaction rates on the presence of catalytic amounts of first row transition metals on the surface of the film was explored.