Study of gradual variation of structural, surface morphological and photocatalytic properties of sol-gel derived transparent TiO2 thin film

Abstract

In this study, an effort has been made to prepare TiO2 thin films by sol-gel technique with small variation of PEG to observe the gradual change of structural, optical and surface morphological properties. The X-ray diffraction study indicates that increase of PEG content enhances crystallite size but the density of crystallite is reduced. The structural, optical and surface morphological study reveals that sol gel derived TiO2 thin film with small variation of PEG can achieve gradual change from dense random structure to early stage of porous network structure. The crystallite size, grain size, porosity and surface roughness can be efficiently modified with the small variation of PEG content. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.