Metalorganic compounds (jargon: metalorganics, metallo-organics) are a class of chemical compound

Chemical compound

A chemical compound is a pure chemical substance consisting of two or more different chemical elements that can be separated into simpler substances by chemical reactions. Chemical compounds have a unique and defined chemical structure; they consist of a fixed ratio of atoms that are held together...

s that contain metals and organic ligands. Metalorganic compounds are used extensively in materials science

Materials science

Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...

 in applications such as metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy

Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy

Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy , also known as organometallic vapour phase epitaxy or metalorganic chemical vapour deposition , is a chemical vapour deposition method of epitaxial growth of materials, especially compound semiconductors, from the surface reaction of organic compounds or...

 (MOVPE or MOCVD) or sol-gel processing using alkoxide

Alkoxide

An alkoxide is the conjugate base of an alcohol and therefore consists of an organic group bonded to a negatively charged oxygen atom. They can be written as RO−, where R is the organic substituent. Alkoxides are strong bases and, when R is not bulky, good nucleophiles and good ligands...

s. Usually, metalorganic compounds are defined to exclude species with direct metal-carbon bonds, which are classified as organometallic compounds, but definitions vary between chemistry and materials science areas.

Applications include the manufacture of compound semiconductor

Compound semiconductor

A compound semiconductor is a semiconductor compound composed of elements from two or more different groups of the periodic table . These semiconductors typically form in groups 13-16 ,...

s and Atomic Layer Deposition

Atomic layer deposition

Atomic layer deposition is a thin film deposition technique that is based on the sequential use of a gas phase chemical process. The majority of ALD reactions use two chemicals, typically called precursors. These precursors react with a surface one-at-a-time in a sequential manner...

 (ALD) in silicon-based semiconductors. Ultrapure metalorganics are required for many optoelectronic and microelectronic applications (e.g., MOCVD and ALD), with highest purity of the order of 99.9999% ("six nines") or greater. These ultrapure metalorganic sources require special manufacturing routes to keep impurity levels below parts per billion (ppb) or even parts per trillion (ppt) levels. The safety, health and environment related aspects of metalorganics are discussed in Product Safety Assessment reports available in electronics industry.

The vapour pressure of a metalorganic precursor is a crucial parameter that governs the concentration

Concentration

In chemistry, concentration is defined as the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Four types can be distinguished: mass concentration, molar concentration, number concentration, and volume concentration...

s of metalorganic precursors entering the reactor

Chemical reactor

In chemical engineering, chemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions. The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering. Chemical engineers design reactors to maximize net present value for the given reaction...

, and subsequently the rate of deposition in MOVPE process.