Synthesis of Bismuth-Based Materials by Electrodeposition

Scientific interest is increasingly focused in electrodeposition techniques, because they offer low cost, low temperature, scalable and manufacturable systems, to obtain even large-area thin films using large tanks as electrolytic cells. An accurate control of the deposit can be perfomed by surface limited electrodeposition of single-layers, exploiting EC-ALD (ElectroChemical Atomic Layer Deposition) technique. The main advantage lies in the possibility of choosing the number of deposition cycles in order to control the thickness and composition, mainly valuable for the preparation of nanostructured materials. A new challenge in the electrodeposition is to obtain bismuth-based materials, comprising a relatively unexplored new field of research that is expected to show many desirable thermoelectric, optoelectronic, and electronic properties for technologically innovative devices. Bismuth is also involved in the synthesis of nanostructures such as topological insulators (for instance bismuth chalcogenides). These materials are of interest for the fabrication of devices in which surface state transport is dominant. In our group, a new research line is addressed to synthesize bismuth-based thin films on mono crystal Ag(111), exploiting single-layer electrodeposition, and to characterize them morphologically and compositionally. The synthesized thin films underwent a preliminar electrochemical characterization (through cyclic and stripping voltammetry), then a thorough morphological and microanalytical SEM-EDX investigation, coupled to X-Ray Diffraction, was achieved.