Effect of C doping on the structural and optical properties of sol–gel TiO2 thin films

Undoped and C-doped TiO₂ thin films have been prepared by sol–gel process. Their structure and optical properties have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV–vis spectroscopy. It has been observed that C dopants retard the transformation from anatase-to-rutile phase. Namely, C doping effect is attributed to the anatase phase stabilization. The optical analyses show that the optical band gap of anatase C-doped TiO₂ decreases with increasing amount of C. Also, it is founded that C dopants have been shown to make TiO₂ have a visible light photoresponse.     

Influences of the iron ion (Fe)-doping on structural and optical properties of nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films prepared by sol-gel spin coating

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin films doping of various iron ion (Fe³⁺) concentrations were deposited on silicon (Si) (100) and quartz substrates by sol-gel Spin Coating technique followed by a thermal treatment at 600 °C. The structure, surface morphology and optical properties, as a function of the doping, have been studied by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE). XRD and Raman analyzes of our thin films show that the crystalline phase of TiO₂ thin films comprised only the anatase TiO₂, but the crystallinity decreased when the Fe³⁺ content increased from 0% to 20%. During the Fe³⁺ addition to 20%, the phase of TiO₂ thin film still maintained the amorphous state. The grain size calculated from XRD patterns varies from 29.3 to 22.6 nm. The complex index and the optical band gap (E_g) of the films were determined by the spectroscopic ellipsometry analysis. We have found that the optical band gap decreased with an increasing Fe³⁺ content.     

Preparation of Co:TiO2 thin films by crossed-beam pulsed laser deposition

Co:TiO₂ thin films were deposited using two interacting plasmas produced from different targets, TiO₂ and cobalt. By keeping constant the laser ablation conditions on the TiO₂ target and changing them on the Co target, it was possible to vary in a controlled way the Co content in the films. The cobalt plasma parameters, such as the ion kinetic energy and plasma density, were determined for each deposition condition in an attempt to correlate them with the material’s properties. The cobalt ion mean kinetic energy was varied from 36 to 789 eV, resulting in films with Co content from 1.2 up to 5.1 at.%, respectively, revealing that the cobalt content can be controlled by the Co⁺ kinetic energy. The study of the optical properties showed that the optical band gap decreased from 2.9 to 2.0 eV as the Co content increased. Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize the microstructure of the deposits, and the obtained results suggest the formation of two coexisting phases: TiO₂ in its rutile phase and CoTiO₃. It was found that as the Co⁺ energy increases, the CoTiO₃ phase develops in a greater quantity. XPS measurements confirm the Raman spectroscopy results.     

Effect of Nb doping on morphology,crystal structure,optical band gap energy of TiO2 thin films

Nb–TiO₂ nanofibers and thin films were prepared using a sol–gel derived electrospinning and spin coating, respectively, by varying the Nb/Ti molar ratios from 0 to 0.59 to investigate the effect of Nb doping on morphology, crystal structure, and optical band gap energy of Nb–TiO₂. XRD results indicated that Nb–TiO₂ is composed of anatase and rutile phases as a function of Nb/Ti molar ratio. As the Nb/Ti molar ratio rose, the anatase to rutile phase transformation and the reduction in crystallite size occurred. The band gap energy of Nb–TiO₂ was changed from 3.25 eV to 2.87 eV when the anatase phase was transformed to rutile phase with increasing the Nb doping. Experimental results indicated that the Nb doping was mainly attributed to the morphology, the crystal structure, the optical band gap energy of Nb–TiO₂, and the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue.     

稀土钇、镧掺杂TiO2薄膜的拉曼谱分析

采用溶胶-凝胶法在石英玻璃衬底上用旋涂法制备了未掺杂、掺杂钇和掺杂镧的TiO₂薄膜样品,对样品在700—1100 ℃范围内进行退火处理,并对样品的拉曼光谱进行了分析.分析表明:随着退火温度的升高,未掺杂TiO₂薄膜发生了从锐钛矿相经混相最终向金红石相的转换,掺杂钇和掺杂镧对TiO₂薄膜的晶相转换起阻碍作用,掺杂镧的阻碍作用更强;稀土掺杂能使TiO₂薄膜晶粒细化,并使晶粒内部应力增大从而阻碍晶格振动,掺杂镧比掺杂钇的效果 关键词： 2薄膜')" href="#">TiO₂薄膜 稀土掺杂 拉曼光谱 溶胶-凝胶     

Phase growth control in low temperature PLD Co: TiO2 films by pressure

This paper reports on the structural and optical properties of Co-doped TiO₂ thin films grown onto (0001)Al₂O₃ substrates by non-reactive pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using argon as buffer gas. It is shown that by keeping constant the substrate temperature at as low as 310 °C and varying only the background gas pressure between 7 Pa and 70 Pa, it is possible to grow either epitaxial rutile or pure anatase thin films, as well as films with a mixture of both polymorphs. The optical band gaps of the films are red shifted in comparison with the values usually reported for undoped TiO₂, which is consistent with n-type doping of the TiO₂ matrix. Such band gap red shift brings the absorption edge of the Co-doped TiO₂ films into the visible region, which might favour their photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the band gap red shift depends on the films’ phase composition, increasing with the increase of the Urbach energy for increasing rutile content.     

Electronic and optical properties of pure and Mo doped anatase TiO2 using GGA and GGA+U calculations

Comparative GGA and GGA+U calculations for pure and Mo doped anatase TiO₂ are performed based on first principle theory, whose results show that GGA+U calculation provide more reliable results as compared to the experimental findings. The direct band gap nature of the anatase TiO₂ is confirmed, both by using GGA and GGA+U calculations. Mo doping in anatase TiO₂ narrows the band gap of TiO₂ by introducing Mo 4d states below the conduction band minimum. Significant reduction of the band gap of anatase TiO₂ is found with increasing Mo doping concentration due to the introduction of widely distributed Mo 4d states below the conduction band minimum. The increase in the width of the conduction band with increasing doping concentration shows enhancement in the conductivity which may be helpful in increasing electron–hole pairs separation and consequently decreases the carrier recombination. The Mo doped anatase TiO₂ exhibits the n-type characteristic due to the shifting of Fermi level from the top of the valence band to the bottom of the conduction band. Furthermore, a shift in the absorption edge towards visible light region is apparent from the absorption spectrum which will enhance its photocatalytic activity. All the doped models have depicted visible light absorption and the absorption peaks shift towards higher energies in the visible region with increasing doping concentration. Our results describe the way to tailor the band gap of anatase TiO₂ by changing Mo doping concentration. The Mo doped anatase TiO₂ will be a very useful photocatalyst with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity.     

Influence of dopant level on structural, optical and magnetic properties of Co-doped anatase TiO2 nanoparticles

Cobalt-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel method. The associated structural, optical, compositional and magnetic properties of the nanoparticles as a function of cobalt concentration have been systematically studied. The X-ray powder diffraction reveals that all samples have pure anatase phase tetragonal system and the lattice parameter analysis indicated that Co ions may substitute into the lattice of TiO₂. The average particle size is 15 nm, when found through transmission electron microscope. Optical spectroscopy measurement showed that the bandgap value decreases upon increasing Co concentration. The magnetic measurements revealed that the enhanced room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) strongly depends on the doping content.     

Effect of cobalt doping on structural,optical and redox properties cerium oxide nanoparticles

Cobalt-doped ceria nanoparticles were synthesized using the polyol method under co-precipitation hydrolysis. The structural, morphological, optical and redox properties were observed to investigate the influence of different concentration of cobalt ion doping on the prepared CeO₂ nanomaterials in terms of X-ray diffraction, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV/vis absorption spectroscopy and temperature program reduction techniques. The optical band gap energy was calculated from the optical absorption spectra for doped ceria nanoparticles, which have been found to be 2.68, 2.77, and 2.82 eV for the 2, 4, and 7 mol% Co ion-doped CeO₂ nanoparticles, respectively. As observed, the band gap energies increases as the doping Co ion concentrations increased, which could be due to significant increased oxygen vacancies with Co doping. The synergistic interaction between Co and CeO₂ was the main factor responsible for high catalytic activity of cobalt-doped CeO₂ model catalysts.     

Synthesis and characterisations of Au-nanoparticle-doped TiO2 and CdO thin films

In the present study, pure and gold nanoparticle (Au NP)-doped titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and cadmium oxide (CdO) thin film were prepared by the sol–gel method, and the effect of Au NP doping on the optical, structural and morphological properties of these thin films was investigated. The prepared thin films were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ultraviolet–visible–near infrared (UV–Vis–NIR) spectra. While the optical band increases from 3.62 to 3.73 for TiO₂ thin films, it decreases from 2.20 to 1.55 for CdO thin films with increasing Au doping concentration. Analysis of XRD indicates that the intensities of peaks of the crystalline phase have increased with the increasing Au NP concentrations in all thin films. SEM images demonstrate that the surface morphologies of the samples were affected by the incorporation of Au NPs. Consequently, the most significant results of the present study are that the Au NPs can be used to modify the optical, structural and morphological properties of TiO₂ and CdO thin films.