Spectral dependence of UV light penetration into powder TiO2 anatase

Abstract

The penetration depth of UV monochromatic light into deposited TiO2 anatase powder was investigated. The light penetration depth was considered in units of numbers of surface hole, Ns, and electron, NO2, centers activated during irradiation. The numbers of hole centers Ns were obtained from photostimulated oxygen isotope exchange reaction registered by means of mass spectrometry. The numbers of electron centers NO2 were obtained from subsequent thermo-programmed desorption spectroscopy of photoadsorbed oxygen O2-. It was shown that the depth D of UV light penetration into UV absorbing TiO2 powder coat depends on the wavelength and intensity I0 of incident UV light and obeys to the equation DI0=1kefflg(I0/Im) obtained from the Beer–Lambert–Bouguer law with effective extinction coefficient keff and minimal value of light intensity Im, below which the photoactivation is considered negligible. Commonly, the value Im has an order of a few microwatts/cm2 for activation of electron and hole type centers except for a case of 334 nm falling into the band of the first direct band-to-band transition of anatase, where relatively high threshold value Im=0.063 mW/cm2 for photoactivation of hole centers was revealed. Effective extinction coefficient keff may be considered proportional to the absorption coefficient of TiO2 in the region of fundamental absorption, whereas, in the non-fundamental absorption region, keff exceeds significantly that of TiO2 due to, probably, dominating scattering processes. At small intensities of the incident light, there is a strong sensitivity of the penetration depth (and activated surface) to the intensity.