The flame assisted chemical vapour deposition of anti-microbial thin-films and transparent conducting oxides

Youngson, P

Abstract

Flame Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition (FACVD) is an inexpensive and robust
method of producing a wide range of metal and metal-oxide films. The work
presented shows this method's ability to deposit durable, semi-transparent anti-
microbial films which show large reductions in the number of colony forming units
(99% in just 15 minutes, 100% in 60 minutes) of Escherichia Coli and
Staphylococcus Aureus using just 55 ^mol silver per m2 of substrate.
A further focus of this work is on the production of transparent conducting oxides. A
series of experiments based on complex factorial design is presented which allows
for the optimum properties of a conducting, transparent film of SnC>2 to be presented.
Intrinsically doped indium oxide films with sheet resistance 250 Q per square,
neodymium oxide films and zinc oxide films with preferential growth orientation have
also been deposited.
The ineffectiveness of FACVD to extrinsically dope metal oxide films was studied and
the conclusion was reached that the gas-phase driven nature of the chemical
reactions allows for preferential nucleation of one oxide over another.
Finally, work is presented on the flow considerations of the FACVD process. A
method is shown to achieve the optimum flow conditions for each particular precursor
used and previous workers' theories are tested on the gas-phase breakdown of
particulates and shown to be inadequate with a new theory of gas-phase flow being
argued.

Citation

Youngson, P. The flame assisted chemical vapour deposition of anti-microbial thin-films and transparent conducting oxides. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2009