Low Temperature Deposition of TiO2 Thin Films through Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Processing

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as a catalyst material in different applications such as photocatalysis, solar cells, supercapacitor, and hydrogen production, due to its better chemical stability, high redox potential, wide band gap, and eco-friendly nature. In this work TiO2 thin films have been deposited onto both glass and silicon substrates by the atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) technique. The structure and morphological properties of TiO2 thin films are studied using different characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, and field emission scanning electron microscopy. XRD study reveals the bronze-phase of TiO2. The XPS study shows the presence of Ti, O, C, and N elements. The FE-SEM study shows the substrate surface is well covered with a nearly round shaped grain of different size. The optical study shows that all the deposited TiO2 thin films exhibit strong absorption in the ultraviolet region. The oleic acid photocatalytic decomposition study demonstrates that the water contact angle decreased from 80.22 to 27.20° under ultraviolet illumination using a TiO2 photocatalyst.