Experimental and computational study of morphological and electrical properties of tin/plasma polymer nanocomposites

Composite tin/n-hexane plasma polymer films were prepared by means of RF magnetron sputtering of tin target in Ar:n-hexane mixture and characterised by various analytical techniques. Their chemical composition was examined by XPS, current-voltage characteristics were measured, and their structure was investigated by conventional TEM and electron tomography. The acquired three-dimensional reconstructions were morphologically analysed by a self-made computer analytical tool, which estimated the mean form factor and the average effective radius of the reconstructed metal inclusions.