The CVD of silver selenide films from dichalcogenophosphinato and imidodichalcogenodiphosphinatosilver(I) single-source precursors

A series of dichalcogenophosphinato [Ag((Se2PPr2)-Pr-i)] (1), [Ag((SSePPr2)-Pr-i)](4) (2), and imidodichalcogenodiphosphinatosilver(I) [Ag{(Pr2P)-Pr-i(S)NP(Se) Pr-i(2)}](3) (3) [Ag{((SePPr2)-Pr-i)(2)N}](3) (4) complexes were synthesised; (2) and (3) were characterised by X-ray single crystallography. Complex (2) has a tetrahedral arrangement of four silver atoms with four thioselenophosphinate ligands along the edges, (3) is a trimer. The compounds (1), (2), (3) and (4) were employed as single- source precursors (SSPs) in aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) and low pressure (LP) CVD. All precursors gave silver selenide (Ag2Se) films by AACVD, whereas only (3) and (4) deposited Ag2Se films by LPCVD. The as-obtained films were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) methods.