The influence of surfactants on the roughness of titania sol-gel films
- Departamento de Ingenieria Quimica y Bioquimica, Instituto Tecnologico de Aguascalientes, Av. A. Lopez Mateos Ote. No. 1801, Fracc. Bona Gens, Aguascalientes 20256 (Mexico)
- Centro de Investigaciones en Optica A.C., Loma del Bosque No. 115, Col. Lomas del Campestre, Leon, Gto. 37150 (Mexico)
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Circuito Exterior s/n, Cd. Universitaria, Mexico, D.F. 04510 (Mexico)
- Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Av. San Rafael Atlixco No. 186, Mexico, D.F. 09340 (Mexico)
Substrate dipping in a composite sol-gel solution was used to prepare both smooth and rough thin films of titanium dioxide (TiO{sub 2}) on commercial fiberglass. The deposition of a composite film was done in a beaker using a solution of titanium (IV) isopropoxide as the sol-gel precursor and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as the surfactant. In order to establish a correlation between experimental conditions and the titanium oxide produced, as well as the film quality, the calcined samples were characterized using Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. One of the most important results is that a 61-nm TiO{sub 2} film was obtained with a short immersion of fiberglass into the sol-gel without surfactant. In other cases, the deposited film consisted of a titanium precursor gel encapsulating micelles of surfactant. The gel films were converted to only the anatase phase by calcining them at 500 deg. C. The resulting films were crystalline and exhibited a uniform surface topography. In the present paper, it was found that the TiO{sub 2} films prepared from the sol-gel with a surfactant showed a granular microstructure, and are composed of irregular particles between 1.5 and 3 {mu}m. Smooth TiO{sub 2} films could have useful optical and corrosion-protective properties and, on other hand, roughness on the TiO{sub 2} films can enhance the inherent photocatalytic activity.
- OSTI ID:
- 21003536
- Journal Information:
- Materials Characterization, Vol. 58, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.matchar.2006.04.021; PII: S1044-5803(06)00122-7; Copyright (c) 2006 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1044-5803
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
BROMIDES
CORRELATIONS
CORROSION
FIBERGLASS
MICROSTRUCTURE
PHOTOCATALYSIS
RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
ROUGHNESS
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SOL-GEL PROCESS
SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
SUBSTRATES
SURFACTANTS
THIN FILMS
TITANIUM OXIDES
TOPOGRAPHY
ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA