A method to directly electrolessly plate silicon-rich silicon nitride with thin gold films was developed and characterized. Films with thicknesses <100 nm were grown at 3 and 10 °C between 0.5 and 3 h, with mean grain sizes between ∼20 and 30 nm. The method is compatible with plating free-standing ultrathin silicon nitride membranes, and we successfully plated the interior walls of micropore arrays in 200 nm thick silicon nitride membranes. The method is thus amenable to coating planar, curved, and line-of-sight-obscured silicon nitride surfaces.
Here we report a solution-phase strategy for depositing ultrathin graphene-like carbon onto iron oxide nanocrystals (NCs) for corrosion resistance in magnetic and electrocatalytic applications. Thermal decomposition of iron carboxylates is a well-known method for generating uniform, size-tunable iron oxide NCs. When this reaction is completed at elevated temperatures and for longer times, the nanomaterials become unreactive to further growth and the magnetic nanomaterial survives treatment with concentrated nitric acid. X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopies reveal that these materials contain graphene-like carbon. Metal carboxylates can decompose and yield carbon monoxide (CO), which we detect via gas chromatography−mass spectrometry. We speculate that when this CO is generated near a growing iron oxide surface, it disproportionates to yield carbon dioxide and carbon. Our approach is notable given that a low-temperature, solution-phase route for forming carbon materials such as graphene from the bottom up has remained elusive.
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