Mechanism of copper chemical vapor deposition from copper dipivaloylmethanate in hydrogen

The kinetics and mechanism of catalyzed copper deposition via hydrogen reduction of copper(II) dipivaloylmethanate are studied between 200 and 350degreesC. A multistep mechanism is proposed which involves the formation of a polychelate on the surface of the growing Cu film. Film growth is accompanied by the transfer of the organic ligand of the polychelate to the adsorbed products of Cu(dpm)(2) dissociation. The low activation energy of the process is interpreted in terms of formal kinetics. The introduction of H(dpm) further reduces the activation energy of the process, to 10 +/- 5 kJ/mol, owing to the dissociative adsorption of the diketone.