Preparation of hydrophilic TiO2 films by chemical solution deposition
Abstract
In this work homogeneous and crack-free titanium dioxide (TiO2) films were grown by chemical solution deposition on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates. The influence of solution composition and deposition time on films morphology was investigated. Morphological features of deposited TiO2 films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Raman spectroscopy studies and peak deconvolution analysis showed that annealed at 500 °C TiO2 films possess an anatase crystal structure. Measurements of a contact angle of water revealed that the surface of the FTO glass after the deposition of TiO2 films became more hydrophilic (contact angle decreased by 45° ± 5). Furthermore, after the irradiation with UV light the contact angle was further reduced from 26 to 7° and from 34 to 13° for films deposited in 2 and 4 h, respectively.