Study of palladium interaction with magnetron sputtered SnO2 films

Abstract

In this work we investigate the possibility to prepare Pd/SnO2 systems by impregnating magnetron sputtered tin oxide layers with palladium using Pd(acac)2 precursor. XRD studies show that as deposited layers are nanocrystalline exhibiting a lack of oxygen. The annealing in oxygen leads to the formation of polycrystalline nearly stoichiometric SnO2 films. High resolution SEM shows that palladium deposition results in a formation of Pd nanosized particles interacting with the SnO2 surface. XPS analysis proofs that strong metal-substrate interaction is responsible for a partial formation of the SnO surface phase even in the case of the oxygen annealed Pd/SnO2 system. © 2006 The Surface Science Society of Japan.