Effect of UV light irradiation on the morphology of pyrolyzed Co3O4 films

Pyrolysis of metal carboxylates on solid substrates is a convenient technique to prepare metal oxide films such as cobalt oxide for use as surface functional and optical materials. However, simple pyrolysis of cobalt naphthenate films resulted in nonuniform cobalt oxide films with many cracks or powder. UV light irradiation on cobalt naphthenate films followed by pyrolysis resulted in uniform cobalt oxide films with remarkably reduced number of cracks, which is a technique effective for improving the uniformity of pyrolyzed metal oxide films.