Platinum thin films obteined Via MOCVD on quartz and CaF2 windows as electrode surfaces for in situ spectroelectrochemistry

High quality and purity Pt thin films were deposited using, as precursors, both platinum (II) acetylacetonate, and methylcyclopentadienyl-(h3-allyl)platinum. XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) analysis of the deposits, obtained with both compounds, shows the Pt 4f7/2 at 71.5 eV, as expected for metallic platinum with the presence of carbon and oxygen contamination only as surface impurities reduced below 2% after sputtering. The XRD (X-ray powder diffraction) spectra, obtained using both precursors, reveal the characteristic peaks of metallic platinum deposit. The depositions were performed on CaF2 and quartz windows only in some well localised areas using a special brass mask prepared in our laboratory (Fig. 3). These specific areas containing the deposit can be used as electrode surfaces on an Optical Transparent Thin Layer Electrochemical (OTTLE) cell for in situ characterisation of the molecular species formed at the interface using UV-VIS-IR Spectroscopy.