(100b) Microplasmas for Substrate-Independent Deposition of Nanostructured Metals and Oxides

A general, substrate-independent method for plasma deposition of nanostructured, crystalline metals and oxides will be presented. The technique uses a flow-through, micro-hollow cathode plasma discharge (supersonic microplasma jet) with remote ring anode to deliver a highly-directed flux of growth species to the substrate. A diverse range of nanostructured materials, e.g., metals (Cu, Ni, Pd), oxides (CuO, SnO₂, NiO, Fe₂O₃, Co_xO_y), doped oxides (Fe_xNi_1-xO), and spinels (NiFe₂O₄) with different morphologies (nanoparticles, dense columnar films, or hierarchical nanostructures) can be deposited at room temperature on virtually any substrate (conductors, insulators, plastics, fibers, and patterns) in a conformal fashion. The effects of deposition conditions, substrate type, and patterning on film morphology, nanostructure and surface coverage will be highlighted. The microplasma synthesis approach presented herein provides a general and tunable method to deposit a variety of functional and hierarchical metal/oxide materials on many different surfaces. High surface area, conversion-type CuO electrodes for Li-ion batteries are demonstrated as a proof-of-concept example.