Home – Home – Jornals – Journal of Structural Chemistry 2012 number 4

Boron carbonitride films are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition from a mixture of triethylamine borane and ammonia on a metallic or oxidized cobalt sublayer sprayed over Si(100) substrates. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the surface of a BC_xN_y/Co/Si sample has a homogeneous fine-grained structure; filamentous entities are found on the surface of the BC_xN_y/CoO_x/Si sample. The electronic structure of the films is investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS). An analysis of the spectra shows that BC_xN_y films are composed of graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) regions and complex BC_хN_yO_z components with B-C, N-C, B-O, N-O, and C-O bonds. The deposition of the BC_xN_y film on the oxidized Co sublayer results in an increase in the number of С-О, N-O, B-O, and С-N bonds and a decrease of the graphite and h-BN components and in the number of С-В bonds. The XPS data are used to estimate the surface elemental composition of the BC_xN_y/CoO_x/Si sample. It is found that the film consists of 66 at.% graphite component and 3 at.% h-BN; the proportion of complex С_0.46B_0.11N_0.05O_0.38 components is 31 at.%.