title: A Versatile Precursor System for Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition of Main-Group Materials.
abstract: For the first time, a versatile electrolyte bath is described that can be used to electrodeposit a wide range of p-block elements from supercritical difluoromethane (scCH2 F2 ). The bath comprises the tetrabutylammonium chlorometallate complex of the element in an electrolyte of 50×10(-3)  mol dm(-3) tetrabutylammonium chloride at 17.2 MPa and 358 K. Through the use of anionic ([GaCl4 ](-) , [InCl4 ](-) , [GeCl3 ](-) , [SnCl3 ](-) , [SbCl4 ](-) , and [BiCl4 ](-) ) and dianionic ([SeCl6 ](2-) and [TeCl6 ](2-) ) chlorometallate salts, the deposition of elemental Ga, In, Ge, Sn, Sb, Bi, Se, and Te is demonstrated. In all cases, with the exception of gallium, which is a liquid under the deposition conditions, the resulting deposits are characterised by SEM, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. An advantage of this electrolyte system is that the reagents are all crystalline solids, reasonably easy to handle and not highly water or oxygen sensitive. The results presented herein significantly broaden the range of materials accessible by electrodeposition from supercritical fluid and open up the future possibility of utilising the full scope of these unique fluids to electrodeposit functional binary or ternary alloys and compounds of these elements.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK). P.N.Bartlett@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Philip N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Bartlett
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burt
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Charles Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry University of Nottingham, University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD (UK).|Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, 199 Talking East Road Ningbo315100 (P.R. China).
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hector
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Mahboba M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hasan
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry University of Nottingham, University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD (UK).
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Levason
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pugh
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Physics and Astronomy University of Southampton, Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Physics and Astronomy University of Southampton, Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Joe
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spencer
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry University of Nottingham, University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD (UK).
authors.forename: Norhidayah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Suleiman
authors.affiliation: Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ (UK).
authors.forename: Wenjian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: electrochemistry; main-group elements; metal-metal interactions; supercritical fluids; surface chemistry