Speakers
Description
In the CatLab project, thin closed metal films ( 10 nm) are deposited on a homogeneous support material. In this way, the support material can influence the properties of the metal catalyst in a designed manner despite not being directly exposed to the reaction gas mixture. Such a sample configuration allows to reduce the complexity of the catalyst – support perimeter region and simplifies the characterization of the catalyst and its catalytic activity. Deliberate tuning of energetic and geometrical properties of the catalyst is expected to pave the way for a dense population of active centers on the surface that is required for catalytically active thin layer metal catalyst.
Utilizing the deposition infrastructure of HZB, Pd-based thin-film catalyst candidates (e.g., Si/Pd, $Si/SiO_2/Pd$, $Si/SiN_x/Pd$, Si/ZnO/Pd) have already been deposited and spectroscopically characterized. For physical vapor deposition of the catalyst, HZB operates a custom built sputter tool embedded in the Energy Materials In Situ Lab (EMIL) infrastructure offering direct access to synchrotron based analytics or transfer to glovebox. Currently, a wide range of targets are available to deposit metals or ceramics including Pd, Pt, Au, Ti or Ir on samples up to 6-inch diameter or 100x100mm².
For catalyst support, capping layer or encapsulation material formation, HZB operates different physical vapor deposition (sputtering and e-beam evaporation) and chemical vapor deposition (esp. PECVD) tools that offer dense and temperature stable materials such as $SiO_2$, $Si_3N_4$, SiC, ZnO, $Al_2O_3$ or CeO2, including a CatLab dedicated deposition tool directly at EMIL and an even broader platform based on several labs in Adlershof, esp. PVcomB. Furthermore, a dedicated ALD tool is currently being ordered for deposition on highly textured substrates. Coatings can be performed on substrates up to 8-inch in diameter or 100x100mm². Recipes for different substrate materials such as silicon, alumina, graphite, glass or steel foils and layer thicknesses up to 4 micrometers ($SiO_2$) or 40 micrometers (Si) are available. For post deposition annealing or alloy formation, an in-vacuum CW laser-based annealing system is available.
