Thickness-dependent photocatalytic performance of nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films prepared by sol–gel spin coating

TiO2 nanocrystalline thin films on soda lime glass have been prepared by sol–gel spin coating. The thin films were characterized for surface morphology, crystal structure, chemical composition, thickness, and transparency by atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ellipsometry, and UV–vis spectrophotometry. The films prepared by titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) as the precursor under pH of 3.5 ± 0.5 and with calcination temperature of 450 ̊C for 3 h exhibited superior homogeneous aggregation, good optical transparency, superhydrophilicity, and reliable thickness. The effect of film thickness on the photocatalytic degradation of acid yellow 17 was investigated under UV irradiation. The photocatalytic activity was strongly correlated with the number of coatings and followed Langmuir-type kinetics. Under the same film thickness, TiO2 thin films prepared by 0.1 M TTIP exhibited more efficient photocatalytic activity than those prepared by 0.3 M TTIP. For thin films prepared by 0.1 M TTIP, the maximum specific photocatalytic activity occurred at 5 coatings with thickness of 93 ± 1 nm. A model was proposed to rationalize the dependence of the film thickness on the photocatalytic activity, which predicts the existence of an optimum film thickness.