Enhancement of photocatalytic pollutant decomposition efficiency of surface mounted TiO2 via lithographic surface patterning

Abstract Titanium dioxide (TiO2) based photocatalysis has been among the most popular advanced oxidation processes in environmental applications in past several decades due to its low cost, nontoxicity, and relatively high oxidizing ability, although suffering from relatively low pollutant decomposition efficiency. Here we present a study on the enhancement of efficiency of thin TiO2 film produced by reactive magnetron sputtering on an interference lithography-processed support, thus increasing the surface area. The efficiency of differently patterned samples was demonstrated by decolorization of methylene blue. The three fold enhancement of the photocatalytic efficiency was observed due to surface area enlargement, and additionally due to multiple UV light reflections.