The influence of corrosion of TiO2 films on their surface properties

Abstract

Abstract The work deals with the influence of TiO2 films corrosion in distilled water on the surface properties of TiO2 films. Films were prepared from the sol in “Ti(i-PrO)4 - IPA - H2O - HNO3” system by dip-coating technique. The surface properties of films were observed using atomic force microscopy and sessile drop method. The morphology and rms-roughness of prepared films were evaluated. On the basis of Fowkes method, the contact angles of films, using distilled water and diiodomethane, were used for determination of surface free energy and its polar and dispersion components. The given surface properties of TiO2 films were compared from the aspect of their preparation temperature (200, 300 and 400 °C) as well as corrosion in water. It was observed, that the film preparation temperature did not have noticeable influence on studied surface properties for non-corroded films. The influence of corrosion was observed only for films prepared at temperature of 300 °C and 400 °C. The corrosion in water influenced the morphology of film surface, increased the roughness, contact angle for water as well as the value of dispersion component of surface free energy.