Fabrication of patterned TiO2 thin film by a wet process

Abstract

Hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterned TiO2 thin film was successfully fabricated on a glass substrate by a wet process. A micro-nano complex structure with a high roughness was fabricated by a layer-by-layer selfassembly and liquid phase deposition (LPD) method. To fabricate superhydrophobic TiO2 thin films, TiO2 nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of (PAH/PAA) thin film by a LPD method and the surface of TiO2 was modified by a hydrophobic treatment using fluoroalkyltrimethoxysilane. The RMS roughness and water contact angle of the prepared TiO2 thin film were ca. 65.6 nm and ca. 155°. The superhydrophobic surface exposed to UV light changed to a hydrophilic surface by the photocatalytic property of TiO2 to decompose a hydrophobic group. Finally, hydrophobic/hydrophilic patterned TiO2 thin film with a 300 μm dot size was fabricated. The surface morphology, transmittance, surface roughness and water contact angle of the prepared thin films were measured by a field emission scanning electron microscope, an atomic force microscope, a UV-Vis spectrophotometer and a contact angle meter.