Influence of the number of layers on photocatalysis activity of TiO2 thin films

Abstract

Titanium oxide (TiO2) is one of the most important semiconductors because of their properties. This study was carried out to investigate the influence of the number of layers of Co -doped TiO2 thin films obtained by sol–gel method on the photocatalytic activity. The crystalline structure of films is characterised by means of X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. All the films were of anatase phase and the particle size was in nanoscale. The surface morphology was studied by atomic force microscopy. The optical properties were investigated by UV-visible spectroscopy. The photocatalytic properties of the samples were tested on the degradation of methylene blue dye solution. The results indicated that photocatalysis is more important when the number of dipping of films increases.
Keywords: Photocatalysis, X-ray diffraction, TiO2, thin films, methylene blue.