Abstract
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were rapidly coated on Corning glass substrates from the precursor solution using the wire-bar technique at the room temperature and then post-annealed at 400, 500 and 600 °C for 1 h under atmospheric conditions. The structural, morphological, optical, wettability and photocatalytic properties of the films were studied. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of an anatase TiO2 structure irrespective of the post-annealing temperatures. The optical transparency of the films in the visible range was measured to be > 70%. A water contact angle (WCA) of ~0° was observed for TiO2 thin-film, post-annealed at 400 °C and 500 °C. However, WCA of 40.3° was observed for post-annealed at 600 °C. The photocatalytic dye-degradation using post-annealed thin-film was investigated indicating a steady improvement in the dye-degradation percentage (from 24.3 to 29.4%) with the increase of post-annealing temperature. The demonstrated TiO2 thin-films deposited by wire-bar coating technique showed promises for the manufacturing of large-area cost-effective self-cleaning window glass.
Highlights
Titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) films have been widely investigated owing to their superhydrophilic, photocatalytic, anti-fogging, anti-reflection, transparent and anti-fouling properties, thereby making that class of material a prominent choice for diverse applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The average crystal grain size is estimated from the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (101) peak using Scherrer formula and found to be around 20 nm without major changes [24]
The average estimated from the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (101) peak using
Summary
Titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) films have been widely investigated owing to their superhydrophilic, photocatalytic, anti-fogging, anti-reflection, transparent and anti-fouling properties, thereby making that class of material a prominent choice for diverse applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Since TiO2 is a nontoxic, earth-abundant, environmentally and economically friendly material [7], TiO2 thin-film (10–20 nm) coated surfaces have been used in self-cleaning, water and air purification, antimicrobial applications etc. The superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic properties are attractive in self-cleaning applications and are commonly evaluated based on the water contact angles (WCAs) with the material/surface. Self-cleaning TiO2 thin-films have been coated using different physical and chemical vapor deposition techniques [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. Though spray-coating and adsorptive self-assemble techniques are amenable to scale-up for large-area coating, they mostly require a long duration for deposition and are not suitable for rapid processing [17,18,19]. The structural, morphological, optical, wettability and photocatalytic properties were studied for suitability in self-cleaning applications
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