Perovskite-Structured PbTiO3 Thin Films Grown from a Single-Source Precursor

Perovskite-structured lead titanate thin films have been grown on FTO-coated glass substrates from a single-source heterometallic molecular complex, [PbTi­(μ2-O2CCF3)4(THF)3(μ3-O)]2 (1), which was isolated in quantitative yield from the reaction of tetraacetatolead­(IV), tetrabutoxytitanium­(IV), and trifluoroacetic acid from a tetrahydrofuran solution. Complex 1 has been characterized by physicochemical methods such as melting point, microanalysis, FTIR, 1H and 19F NMR, thermal analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Thin films of lead titanate having spherical particles of various sizes have been grown from 1 by aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition at 550 °C. The thin films have been characterized by powder XRD, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. An optical band gap of 3.69 eV has been estimated by UV–visible spectrophotometry.