Superhydrophilicity and photocatalytic enhancement of titania nano thin films

Anatase TiO2 thin films were prepared on glass substrates by the sol–gel dip coating method with TiCl4 as the Ti precursor and Tween 80 as a surfactant. XRD, AFM, and UV–Vis photospectroscopy experiments were used to analyze the structural and optical characteristics of the films. The influences of three different aging times on crystallinity, morphology, photocatalytic, superhydrophilicity behaviors, and size of the obtained TiO2 grains were investigated. With increasing the aging time, crystallite size of anatase structure and thickness of the films were increased. It was shown that in one of the samples, photocatalytic and superhydrophilic phenomena reach optimum, simultaneously. This could be very useful for self-cleaning application.