TITLE:
Sol-Gel Spin Coating Synthesis of TiO2 Nanostructure and Its Optical Characterization
AUTHORS:
Simeon Amole, Mojoyinola Kofoworola Awodele, Oluwaseun Adedokun, Momodu Jain, Ayodeji Oladiran Awodugba
KEYWORDS:
TiO2, Sol-Gel Spin Coating, Grain Sizes, Nanostructure, Annealing Temperature
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.7 No.6,
June
30,
2019
ABSTRACT: This work focuses on the sol-gel spin coating technique of TiO2 nanostructure synthesis and its characterization. Though various methods have been used to fabricate TiO2 nanostructure, much effort has not been exerted to achieve better photoresponsive and narrowly dispersed TiO2 nanostructure using the sol-gel spin coating method. Therefore, it is imperative to realize the synthesis of TiO2 nanostructures, and investigate their properties. In this work, TiO2 is synthesized by sol-gel spin coating technique using titanium tetraisopropoxide, isopropanol, acetic acid and deionized water as starting materials and deposited on borosilicate glass substrates. The effects of annealing temperatures (300˚C, 400˚C and 500˚C) on the structural and optical properties of the films were investigated by different techniques: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy and UV-visible spectrophotometry. The optical characterization showed the direct band gap at 3.7 eV, 3.6 eV and 3.4 eV for 300˚C, 400˚C and 500˚C, respectively, and the optical transmittance and reflectance spectra showed a greater performance at 500˚C. The grain sizes obtained from SEM annealed at 300˚C, 400˚C and 500˚C are found to be about 6.0 nm, 5.0 nm and 4.0 nm respectively. The grain size of TiO2 nanostructure films decreased with increasing annealing temperatures. The results clearly indicated that the sol-gel spin coating synthesis of TiO2 nanostructure and post-thermal treatment at 500˚C cooled naturally at room temperature result in better photoresponsive and narrowly dispersed TiO2 nanostructure films with higher photoresponsive and good optical properties.