Study of composite TiN/Ag/Cu2O/TiO2 with improved photocatalytic performance

Abstract

TiO2 film has the advantage of good photochemical stability and it can be used for self-cleaning glasses. However, due to the wide band gap, the spectral response range of TiO2 film is restricted to the ultraviolet region. In this work, based on the research of TiO2 thin films, multilayer TiN/Ag/Cu2O/TiO2 films were designed and successfully prepared. The structure and properties of the obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, spectral ellipsometry (SE), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer. The results show that p-n heterojunction will be formed between Cu2O and TiO2 in the multilayer film, thus reducing the band gap of TiO2 film. Based on the analysis of the photocatalytic mechanism of the multilayer films, a conclusion may be drawn that the designed multilayer film is helpful to improve the photocatalytic efficiency of titanium dioxide and expand its utilization of sunlight.