Abstract

MEDINA-VALTIERRA, Jorge; SANCHEZ-CARDENAS, Manuel; FRAUSTO-REYES, Claudio  and  CALIXTO, Sergio. Formation of smooth and rough TiO₂ thin films on fiberglass by sol-gel method. J. Mex. Chem. Soc [online]. 2006, vol.50, n.1, pp.8-13. ISSN 1870-249X.

Substrate dipping in a composite sol-gel solution was used to prepare smooth and rough thin films of TiO₂ on fiberglass. The deposition of films was done using a solution of titanium (IV) isopropoxide as sol-gel precursor and cetyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide as surfactant. The samples were characterized using Raman and Uv-vis spectroscopy, scanning and atomic force microscopy. In some cases, films only consisted of the titanium precursor gel. A TiO₂ 61-nm 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. In each sample, gel film is converted only to the anatase phase by calcining it at 500 °C. It was found that the TiO₂ film prepared from the sol-gel with surfactant shows a granular microstructure, and is composed of about 2 μm irregular particles. Smooth TiO₂ films could have useful optical and corrosion-protective properties and by other hand, roughness on TiO₂ films can enhance the inherent photocatalytic activity.

Keywords : Sol-gel deposition; fiber-glass; TiO₂; thin films.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )