Sol-Gel TiO<sub>2</sub> Thin Films Sensitized with the Natural Botanical Dyes

Abstract

Given the low cost of their components and their demonstrated reliable efficiencies, dye-sensitized techniques based on the titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films have received much research attention in the past decade. The dSubscript textye/TiO2 thin films were prepared on glass fibers substrate by a dip-coating method combined with a sol-gel process and the photocatalytic of acetone was investigated in this study. The natural botanical dye of Gardenia jasminoides with absorption reflection intensity in 410-460 nm of liquid extraction was used to improve the photo absorbability under illumination of visible light source. Degradation of acetone under 420 nm light illumination was conducted to evaluate the photocatalytic ability of the dye/TiO2 thin films. The SEM images evidence that fibers existed in the dye/nano-TiO2 composites. The dye/TiO2 thin films catalyst prepared in the laboratory shoSubscript textwed photocatalytic performance with the degradation efficiency of 55% under 420 nm. A few percentages increase in removal efficiency when compared with the dye less TiO2 thin films.