Introducing the concept of pulsed vapor phase copper-free surface click-chemistry using the ALD technique

We report for the first time on a pulsed vapor phase copper-free azide-alkyne click reaction on ZnO by using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process technology. This reproducible and fast method is based on an in situ two-step reaction consisting of sequential exposures of ZnO to propiolic acid and benzyl azide.This work was mainly supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under project IP-2016-06-3568, and in part by the University of Rijeka under project number 16.12.2.1.01.The characterization instruments used in this work were acquired through the European Fund for Regional Development and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia under the project Research Infrastructure for Campusbased Laboratories at the University of Rijeka (grant number RC.2.2.06-0001). Mato Knez and Celia Rogero are grateful for funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant MAT2016-77393-R and MAT2016-78293-C6-5-R, including FEDER funds). Mato Knez acknowledges the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme – MDM-2016-0618, and Celia Rogero acknowledges the Interreg POCTEFA V-A Spain–France–Andorra Program (EFA 194/16/TNSI) partly financed by ERDF funds. The authors acknowledge networking support within the COST action HERALD (MP1402)