Expedient route to volatile zirconium metal-organic chemical vapor deposition precursors using amide synthons and implementation in yttria-stabilized zirconia film growth

This communication reports rapid, efficient syntheses of the zirconium-organic metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) precursors Zr(acac)₄ and Zr(dpm)₄ (acac = acetylacetonate; dpm = dipivaloylmethanate) as well as a new, highly volatile, air- and moisture-stable Zr precursor based on a tetradentate Schiff-base ligand, Zr(tfacen)₂ (tfacen = bis-trifluoroacetylacetone-ethylenediiminate). The improved one-step synthetic routes employ tetrakis(dimethylamido)zirconium as a common intermediate and represent a major advance over previous methods employing ZrCl₄ or diketonate metathesis. Furthermore, Zr(tfacen)₂ is shown to be an effective metal-organic precursor for the MOCVD-mediated growth of (100) oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia thin films.