The Synthesis And Photocatalyst Properties Of Titanium Dioxide Columnar Nanostructure Films

In recent years, much attention has been paid for semiconductor photocatalysts owing to its potential application in many areas, especially the treatment of environmental pollutants. Among semiconductor photocatalysts, TiO₂ is most frequently employed because of its non-toxity, high activity, low cost and strong stability in aqueous media. TiO₂ thin films could accomplish the photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds under UV. Therefore, they have a variety of complication prospects in the fields of environmental protection, air cleaning, self-cleaning coatings and so on.In this thesis, the photocatalytic efficiency to decolorize methyl orange of TiO₂ columnar structure films was evaluated experimentally. The TiO₂ film with columnar nanostructure was prepared by combination the GLAD (glancing angle deposition) technique in magnetron sputtering and the following two-step annealing treatment.Experimental results showed that the TiO₂ film kept discrete columnar structure as the Ti film deposited by GLAD and accomplished the phase transition from Ti to rutile and anatase TiO₂. Such TiO₂ films could perform photocatalytic decolorization effectively and reusable under UV radiation. The samples with larger glancing angles had higher degrees of porosity and performed photocatalytic decolorization more effectively.The overall study demonstrates the potential of reusable, effective and low-cost photocatalyst of methyl orange for treatment of effluent.