Invited
Molecular layer deposition of chemically active hybrid thin films: The case of enantioselective thin film

Atomic/Molecular layer deposition (ALD/MLD) are based on the use of hetero- and homo-bifunctional organic or metal-organic compounds that vaporize, chemisorb onto and react with an appropriately functionalized surface. Both ALD and MLD allow temporal separation of any number of precursors, each of which produces self-limiting adsorption/reaction on the surface so that typical uptake is limited to ~one monolayer of any given precursor. This leads to growth controlled at the monolayer level and self-limiting reactions that have shown extreme conformality, even into ultra-high-aspect-ratio and porous substrates.

In the present talk, we demonstrate a remarkable progress in MLD/ALD into a new horizon of surface treatment, and address a question with both fundamental and applicative significance: can we grow molecularly thin films from the vapor phase, which maintain a desirable chemical property originated from the source precursor. This question can be exemplified by a variety of chemical properties, such as MLD of enantioselective thin films from chiral building blocks (e.g. volatile amino acids), thin film deposition of molecular traps, and more.

We show herein, that carefully chosen MLD can facilitate growth of chiral thin films on various substrates with diverse precursors and processes parameters.

Our work enables the synthesis and deposition of enantioselective thin films without any chiral templating-process, and the growth of such films on any substrate starting from carefully chosen building blocks.

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