[en] To support the trend of a new green energy introduction in economics it has become urgent nowadays that more available and cheaper materials would substitute noble and/or expensive materials (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Ga …). Therefore, we studied molybdenum oxynitride films due to their catalytic properties. Molybdenum oxynitride films were fabricated by sub-atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (SACVD). According to Raman spectroscopy, grown platelets possessed MoO₃ structure up to 12 at. % NH₃ in NH₃/air mixture. With the increasing amount of NH₃ in the reaction atmosphere (16–25 at. % NH₃), the films became heterogeneous containing Mo₄O₁₁ and MoO₂ suboxides. Nanostructures – nanorods, nanoribbons - developed gradually at those samples with highest concentrations of NH₃ in the atmosphere (25–33 at. % NH₃) whose structure was built by blocks of corner-sharing Mo-octaedra separated by double layers of edge-sharing Mo-octaedra, which was revealed by Electron Diffraction Tomography (EDT). X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), similarly to Raman spectroscopy, showed a gradual rise of molybdenum suboxides with NH₃ increase in the atmosphere, which was indicated by the successive appearance of Mo⁶⁺ → Mo⁵⁺ → Mo⁴⁺ species. As N 1s XPS signal was fully overlapped by the Mo 3d_5/2 one, a new procedure of a standard selected was used for the estimation of the nitrogen content in the films. This material was capable of reducing water under illumination as found by Cycling Votammetry (CV).

[en] We applied the resonant infrared matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation (RIR MAPLE) technique to demonstrate a new approach to a controlled deposition of carbon rich amorphous Si/C/H film. In absence of radicals and accelerated species commonly generated in PECVD and sputtering setups, the RIR MAPLE method does not decompose precursor molecules. Moreover, unlike the standard MAPLE procedure, in which solvent molecules absorb laser energy from excimer or near infrared lasers, we applied the pulsed TEA CO₂ laser to excite the dendrimer precursor molecules in a frozen target. In this manner we achieved just cross-linking of the starting precursor on substrates and the deposition of carbon rich Si/C/H film. The film was analyzed by Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR), UV/VIS, Raman and X-ray Photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) technique. According to analyses the film retained the precursor elemental composition free of graphitic (sp²) clusters. In course of reaction only the peripheral allyl groups containing C=C bonds were opened to achieve cross-linking. Whereas annealing to 300 °C was necessary for the elimination of =C–H₁, ₂ bonds in the films prepared at 200 °C, those bonds vanished completely for the films prepared at substrate temperature 255 °C. The film posseses a smooth surface with root mean square (RMS) parameter up to 10 nm within scanned distance 2.5 μm.

[en] Accurate crystal structure of single nanocrystals as small as tens of nanometers can be obtained by the recently published full dynamical structure refinement of precession electron diffraction tomography (PEDT) data. Here we apply the method to the structure redetermination of the nickel silicide ε-Ni_3Si_2 from a nanowire with the diameter of 35 nm. The structure was determined as centrosymmetric Cmcm, in disagreement with the published structure, which was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction in 1961 in the noncentrosymmetric space group Cmc2_1. The structure was also determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), giving the same results as PEDT. The average difference of the atomic positions between the models obtained by PEDT and SCXRD was smaller than 0.007 Å. - Highlights: • Crystal structure of ε-Ni_3Si_2 was redetermined on a nanowire with d = 35 nm. • The structure is centrosymmetric Cmcm, not Cmc2_1 as previously published. • Single nanocrystal was measured using precession electron diffraction tomography. • The dynamical theory was used for the refinement of the structure parameters. • Atomic positions accuracy is approaching that of single crystal X-ray diffraction.