Effect of acrylic acid additive on electric conductivity of polymer-derived amorphous silicon carbonitride

The effect of acrylic acid additive on the electric conductivity of amorphous SiCN derived from polymeric precursor was studied. The conductivity showed to follow the Arrhenius dependence on pyrolysis temperature, but with much smaller activation energy, as compared to the unmodified SiCN. Structural analysis using Raman and XPS revealed that the size of the free-carbon clusters within the AC-modified SiCN changed with pyrolysis temperature, but the sp2-to-sp3 ratio remained almost the same. The reason for the effect of AC on the carbon cluster was speculated. The mechanisms governing the conductivity behavior of the AC-modified SiCN were discussed.