Abstract
This paper presents a comparative study on the thermal decomposition in air and FTIR analyses of complex sol-gel precursors used for the deposition of three titania based mesoporous thin films: TiO2, Nb-doped TiO2 and carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)-doped TiO2. The effect of doping with Nb or adding MWCNT on the thermal decomposition of titanium isopropoxide-based precursor and crystallization of TiO2 was investigated through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) data. TG-DTA results showed two main exothermic peaks were observed in all samples for the temperature range 280-300 oC and 429-444 oC, corresponding to isopropoxide oxidative decomposition and anatase crystallization. In case of Nb doped TiO2 an oxidative decomposition of Nb ethoxide appears at 198 �C. The acidified MWCNT are thermally stable up to 500�C. Doping TiO2 causes peaks shift to higher temperatures. Also, the effect of heating rate on thermal decomposition for precursors was studied. FTIR analyses were conducted on precursor systems thermally treated at different temperature to track the chemical transformations during the films formation.
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