Abstract
TiO2 anatase phase has a key role in environmental and photocatalysis research. But, the TiO2 anatase phase is not able to give photocatalytic activity in the visible spectrum as it has a large bandgap, i.e., 3.2 eV which is the main drawback of it. Thus, if some method could decrease the bandgap of anatase, TiO2 - able to photocatalysis in the visible light irradiation. Hence, visible spectrum-active TiO2 (visi-TiO2) thin films on corning glass were deposited using RF magnetron sputtering in the present study. The visi- TiO2 was deposited at various RF powers (60, 120, 180, 200, and 300 W) and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis spectroscopy, and dye degradation under visible light. The XRD spectrum confirmed that an increase in RF power was generated phase transformation from rutile to anatase. The bandgap energy was calculated by the Tauc method, and the direct optical band gap of the visi- TiO2 film was observed to decrease from 3.15 to 2.87 eV as an increase in RF power. The visible light absorption edge in all Visi- TiO2 thin films is due to surface morphology. Photocatalytic activity of Visi-TiO2 film has been explored by degradation of direct blue 14 azo dye in aqueous solution as a contaminant of water in presence of visible spectrum irradiation. The photocatalytic degradation potential of Visi-TiO2 film was found to be 99% after 210 min. The newly discovered low bandgap anatase phase can be achieved by changing the sputtering parameters. The synthesis of a TiO2 anatase phase with a bandgap belongs to the visible and more chemical reactivity has implications for its use as a photocatalyst and artificial photosynthesis.
Published Version
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