Plasma electrolytic oxidation of Ti - W surface alloys synthetized by PVD-LEHCEB

Abstract

An innovative approach exploiting PVD-coupled Low-Energy High-Current Electron Beam (LEHCEB) and Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) techniques were investigated to obtain photoactive TiO2-WO3 mixed films. Ti-W surface alloys containing 14 at.% W were synthetized by PVD deposition of 185 nm thick W films onto Ti substrates, followed by LEHCEB alloying at 30 kV for 50 pulses. The obtained Ti-W surface alloys were treated by PEO in 1.5 M H2SO4 at constant cell voltage ranging from 100 to 200 V. The resulting mixed oxide films were investigated by XRD, SEM and EDS analysis. Photoelectrochemical properties were determined by linear sweep voltammetry in dark and under UV-C and UV-VIS irradiation.