Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition Precursors: Diagnostic Check for Volatilization Thermodynamics of Scandium(III) β-Diketonates

Scandium complexes with β-diketonate ligands are valuable precursors for the metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) of scandia based materials, but data on their volatilization thermodynamics crucial to MOCVD technology are in a huge disarray. We have addressed this issue with a diagnostic tool based on the principles of group additivity and structure–property relationships, which had been developed by us specifically for metal–organic objects. For this purpose, a mass of experimental data on the vapor pressures and enthalpies of sublimation, vaporization and fusion available in the literature for scandium(III) β-diketonates has been compiled and analyzed. Additionally, saturated vapor pressures and thermodynamic sublimation characteristics have been obtained for scandium(III) complexes with acetylacetone, hexafluoroacetylacetone, and 3-methyl-2,4-pentanedione by transpiration and thermogravimetric methods. New data have allowed us to arbitrate the conflict of literature data. As a result, a consistent set of enthalpies of the three discussed processes has been obtained for eight scandium complexes. Dispersion interactions and non-additive effects have been shown to be typical for metal tris-β-diketonates. They have been taken into account to improve the diagnostic check. It is now possible to quite easily assess the thermodynamics of tris-β-diketonate complexes with different metals which are in demand as precursors in gas-phase technology.