Chemical vapour deposition is a necessary and important technology for the manufacture of nano-thin metal films. The reactivity and thermal stability of the metal complexes used in this process are key to the deposition process. Through logical design, guanidinate ligands have evolved into iminopyrrolidinates to prevent decomposition pathways. These ligands were first tested on aluminum metal centres. Iminopyrrolidinates have been further stabilized with additional methyl moieties and have led to promising new copper precursors. Copper metal is desirable for interconnecting material in electronics due to its high conductivity. The reactivity of 1,3-diisopropyl-imidazolin-2-ylidene copper hexamethyl disilazide has been explored and yielded three new copper metal compounds. Sputtered thin films of gold have been used in metal assisted chemical etching to produce high aspect ratio structures on the surface of silicon substrates.