Ceramics-Silikáty 56 (2) 135-138 (2012)

Photocatalytic properties of Cr doped TiO₂–SiO₂ nanostructure thin film

A. Eshaghi, A. Eshaghi

Cr doped TiO₂–SiO₂ nanostructure thin film on glass substrates was prepared by a sol-gel dip coating method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis spectrophotometer were used to characterize the structural, chemical and optical properties of the thin film. The XRD showed that thin films contain only anatase phase. FE-SEM images illustrated that anatase average crystallite size in the pure TiO₂ and Cr doped TiO₂–SiO₂ thin films are 15 nm and 10 nm, respectively. XPS spectra confirmed the presence of Cr³⁺ in the thin film. UV-vis absorption spectra indicated that absorption edge in Cr doped TiO₂–SiO₂ thin film shifted to the visible light region. The photocatalytic results pointed that Cr doping in TiO₂–SiO₂ improved decoloring rate of methyl orange in comparison to pure TiO₂ thin film.

Keywords: Sol-gel, Thin film, TiO₂, doping, Photocatalysis