Effects of substrate temperature on the microstructure and photocatalytic reactivity of TiO2 films

Transmission electronic microscopy is used to study the structure, morphology and orientation of thin TiO2 films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering on glass slides at different substrate temperatures (100 to 400 °C). The TiO2 films are used to purify a dye in waste water. The microstructure and photocatalytic reactivity of TiO2 films have been shown to be functions of deposition temperature. In the temperature range examined, all film samples have a porous nanostructure and the dimension of particles grown with increasing deposition temperature. Films are amorphous at temperatures of 100 °C and only anatase phase forms at 200 °C and above. Films deposited between 200 to 300 °C show a preferred orientation, while films at 400 °C change into complete random orientation. Deposition at 250 °C yields high efficiency in photocatalytic degradation owing to the high degree of preferred orientation and nanocrystalline/nanoporous anatase phase. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers