Self cleaning effects on the glass substrates with TiO2-V thin films prepared by sol-gel method

The self-cleaning effects of TiO2 thin films have become an interesting subject in recent years. The self-cleaning property has been known to be a combined effect of the two photoactive characteristic properties of TiO2 thin films: super-hydrophilicity and photocatalysis. In this study, vanadium doped TiO2 thin film was deposited on the glass substrates using a sol-gel dip-coating method. X-Ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to investigate the film characteristics. Water contact angle on the film surfaces was measured by a contact angle analyzer. In addition, the photocatalytic activities of films were evaluated with UV-Spectrophotometer.The results indicated that dopant elements had a significant effect on the hydrophilicity, photocatalytic and self-cleaning properties of TiO2 thin films.

Keywords:

TiO2 , Sol-Gel processes , Self-Cleaning effect , photocatalysis characteristic , Superhydrophilicity property