Effects of electrophoretic deposition parameters on the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films: Optimization by response surface methodology

In this work, the electrophoretic deposition method was utilized to immobilize TiO2 particles on stainless steel substrates. In addition, for the first time, statistics-based experimental design using response surface methodology was employed to investigate the effect of four key coating parameters (i.e. applied voltage, calcination temperature, photocatalyst weight percentage, and deposition time) on the photocatalytic degradation. Analysis of variance revealed that the proposed model was adequate. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope were used to evaluate the effects of the parameters on degradation efficiency. The optimum applied voltage, calcination temperature, catalyst concentration and deposition time were found to be 25 V, 300 °C, 1.0 wt%, and 300 s, respectively. Under these conditions, the degradation efficiency reached 85.88%.