Deposition of photocatalytic anatase titanium dioxide films by atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract In this study, TiO 2 films are easily deposited in a single-step process from titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) device under atmospheric pressure at room temperature. The surface morphology of the as-deposited TiO 2 films is observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The as-deposited TiO 2 films exhibit nanometer-sized particles with a lot of agglomerates. The cross section images indicate that the deposition rate of TiO 2 films can reach about 70 nm·min − 1 , which is much faster than that of conventional low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (typically − 1 ). In order to confirm the structure composition and optical properties of the films, glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) are employed. The as-deposited TiO 2 films are partly crystalline which show a good photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue under UV irradiation. After annealing at 673 K, the TiO 2 films are in the anatase phase and composed by homogeneous nanoparticles. The photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue of the TiO 2 films after annealing (~ 0.6 h − 1 ) is almost 4 times higher than that of the as-deposited TiO 2 films (~ 0.16 h − 1 ). The photocatalytic degradation rate of the TiO 2 film after annealing is the same as the one of the commercial anatase TiO 2 spin coated film when the error bar is taken into account. The TiO 2 films show excellent photocatalytic stability during 3 recycling photocatalytic measurements.