Carbon-doped γ-Ti3O5 film with enhanced photothermal conversion performance

Abstract

γ-Ti3O5 is considered as a promising photothermal conversion material because of its unique metal property and strong local surface plasmon resonance effect. However, few reports have noted photothermal conversion of γ-Ti3O5 films, much less modification of γ-Ti3O5 films. In this work, carbon-doped γ-Ti3O5 thin films were prepared by magnetron sputtering followed by annealing treatment. With higher amount of carbon doped in γ-Ti3O5 films, higher oxygen vacancy concentration is achieved, and increasement is observed on the light absorption rate and the amplitude of temperature-rise under simulated solar irradiation, indicating obvious photothermal performance improvement. These performance improvements can be attributed to the increase of free carrier concentration caused by carbon doping and the consequent enhancement of local surface plasmon resonance effect. In addition, appropriate carbon doping amount can also improve the photothermal conversion efficiency. To sum up, carbon-doped modification on γ-Ti3O5 significantly promoted its light absorption and photothermal conversion properties, and further expanded its application potential in solar energy utilization, photothermal therapy, etc.