Electroless Deposition of Pb Monolayer: A New Process and Application to Surface Selective Atomic Layer Deposition.

The present work demonstrates an electroless (e-less) deposition of Pb monolayer on Au and Cu surface whose morphology and properties resemble its underpotentially deposited counterpart. Our results and analysis show that the e-less Pb monolayer deposition is a surface selective, surface controlled, self-terminating process. Results also show that the electroless Pb monolayer deposition is enabling a phenomenon for new deposition method called "electroless atomic layer deposition" (e-less ALD). Here, the e-less Pb monolayer serves as reducing agent and sacrificial material in surface limited redox replacement reaction with noble metal ions such as Pt , i.e., Pt deposition. The e-less ALD is highly selective to the metal substrates at which Pb forms the e-less monolayer. The full e-less ALD cycle leads to an overall deposition of a controlled amount of the noble metal. Repetition of the two-step e-less ALD cycle an arbitrary number of times leads to formation of a highly compact, smooth, and conformal noble metal thin film with applications spanning from catalyst synthesis to semiconductor technology. The process is designed for (but not limited to) aqueous solutions that can be easily scaled up to any size and shape of the substrate, deeming its wide applications.