Abstract
Oxidation of HF vapor-etched nanocrystalline silicon films, prepared by drop coating from nanocrystalline Si sol in acetonitrile, was studied. Oxidation of nanocrystalline silicon at room temperature in air with 5% and 86% relative humidity was observed by means of infrared spectroscopy for 2 days. The change in film mass after 15 h of oxidation was determined using quartz crystal microbalance. In dry air, film mass and integral intensity of bands attributed to vibrations in Si3 − x–Si–Hx and Si–O–Si groups changed linearly with time. In humid air, intensity of in Si3 − x–Si–Hx band decays exponentially and intensity of Si–O–Si band increases as a square root of oxidation time. Film mass gain after 15 h of oxidation corresponds to an average oxide layer thickness of 0.02 nm in dry air and 0.51 nm in wet air.
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The authors acknowledge (partial) support from M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Program of Development.
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This work was financially supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant no. 17-03-01269.
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Popelensky, V.M., Dorofeev, S.G., Kononov, N.N. et al. Room temperature oxidation of Si nanocrystals at dry and wet air. J Nanopart Res 22, 54 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-020-4762-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-020-4762-4