Deposition and characterization of highly oriented Mg3(VO4)2 thin film catalysts

Magnesium vanadates are potentially important catalytic materials for the conversion of alkanes to alkenes via oxidative dehydrogenation. However, little is known about the active sites at which the catalytic reactions take place. It may be possible to obtain a significant increase in the catalytic efficiency if the effects of certain material properties on the surface reactions could be quantified and optimized through the use of appropriate preparation techniques. Given that surface reactivity is often dependent upon surface structure and that the atomic level structure of the active sites in these catalysts is virtually unknown, we desire thin film samples consisting of a single magnesium vanadate phase and a well defined crystallographic orientation in order to reduce the complexity and simplify the study of active sites. We report on the use of reactive rf sputter deposition to fabricate very highly oriented, stoichiometric Mg3(VO4)2 thin films for use in these surface analysis studies. Deposition of...