Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as a catalyst material in different applications such as photocatalysis, solar cells, supercapacitor, and hydrogen production, due to its better chemical stability, high redox potential, wide band gap, and eco-friendly nature. In this work TiO2 thin films have been deposited onto both glass and silicon substrates by the atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) technique. The structure and morphological properties of TiO2 thin films are studied using different characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy. XRD study reveals the bronze-phase of TiO2. The XPS study shows the presence of Ti, O, C, and N elements. The FE-SEM study shows the substrate surface is well covered with a nearly round shaped grain of different size. The optical study shows that all the deposited TiO2 thin films exhibit strong absorption in the ultraviolet region. The oleic acid photocatalytic decomposition study demonstrates that the water contact angle decreased from 80.22 to 27.20° under ultraviolet illumination using a TiO2 photocatalyst.
Highlights
TiO2 is one of the most studied semiconductor oxide materials due to its vast applications, which include photocatalytic dye degradation, water splitting, self-cleaning agent, dye sensitized solar cells, photocatalytic hydrogen production, etc
The photocatalytic activity of the bare glass and TiO2 thin films (He/Ar: 3L/min / 300 mL/min and water vapor) prepared by the atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) technique was tested for the photocatalytic decomposition of oleic acid under ultra violet (UV) light illumination
These results suggest that both light and catalyst is required for the effective photocatalytic decomposition of organic compounds like oleic acid [25,26]
Summary
TiO2 is one of the most studied semiconductor oxide materials due to its vast applications, which include photocatalytic dye degradation, water splitting, self-cleaning agent, dye sensitized solar cells, photocatalytic hydrogen production, etc. The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) technique became more popular to obtain crystalline thin films in a single step without post-annealing. Dong and co-researchers achieved adherent, optically transparent and fine electrically conductive TiNx /TiO2 hybrid films on polycarbonate and silicon substrates using the APP technique [8]. The plasma processing conditions, i.e., power and gas compositions, were precisely varied to achieve the hybrid thin films with 83% transmittance in the visible region, almost 8.5 J/m2 of film adhesion energy towards the polycarbonate and electrical resistivity of ~8.5 × 101 ohm cm before annealing. In the present research work, the APPJ technique was used to deposit TiO2 thin films onto the glass and silicon substrates This technique enables thin film deposition on large or any type of substrate without the need for vacuum or inert deposition environments. Spectroscopy, FE-SEM, contact angle, and UV-Vis spectra in diffused reflection mode
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