Total Pressure and Annealing Temperature Effects on Structure and Photo-Induce Hydrophilicity of Reactive DC Sputtered TiO2 Thin Films

Nano-crystalline Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been well-known as a one of the most useful semiconductor material for application in self-cleaning coating which contains hydrophilic property. In this research, the films were deposited on un-heated silicon and glass slide substrates by home-made reactive unbalance magnetron sputtering system at various total gas pressures of 3.0 x 10-3, 5.0 x 10-3 and 7.0 x 10-3 mbar, as deposited thin films of 7.0 x 10-3 mbar annealed in the ambient air at 100oC, 300oC and 500oC, respectively. The effect of total pressure and annealing temperatures on structure, surface morphology and hydrophilic properties were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and contact angle meter under UV illumination. The results reveal that the crystal structure, surface morphology and photo-induce hydrophilicity were strongly influence by total pressure and annealing temperature. The films showed mixed phase of rutile and anatase. The phase transition from rutile to mixed phase of anatase/rutile was observed with increase total pressure. In addition, the roughness increased from 2.1 to 5.3 nm which give a greater hydrophicity. The enhancement of crystallinity and hydrophilic properties were obtained by varied the annealing temperature. The phase mixture of anatase/rutite and annealed temperature of 300oC show that the contact angle of thin film became 0o after UV light irradiation which exhibited clearly superhydrohilic property

Apatite Formation on Rutile TiO2 Film Deposited Using Dual Cathode DC Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering

Rutile TiO2 films were deposited on unheated stainless steel type 316L using dual cathode DC unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The effects of deposition time ranging 30, 60, 90, and 120 mins on the films structure were investigated. Moreover, all the samples were immersed in SBF for period times of 3 and 5 days also considered. The crystal structures were characterized by thin film X-ray diffraction (TF-XRD). The film’s thickness and surface morphology were evaluated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The crystallinity, roughness, thickness, and grain size of rutile with only (110) plane increased with increased deposition time. After immersed samples in SBF for 3 day the highest and moderate crystallinity of apatite was observed on the 30 min and 90 min, respectively. However, the films deposited with 60 and 120 min cannot be observed the peak of apatite. An increase crystallinity of apatite clearly observed when after immersed in SBF for 5 day

Growth of Silver Nanoparticles by DC Magnetron Sputtering

Silver (Ag) nanoparticles are of great interest for many applications. However, their fabrications have been limited by the synthesis methods in which size, shape, and aggregation are still difficult to control. Here, we reported on using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering for growing Ag nanoparticles on unheated substrates. Effects of sputtering condition on grain size of Ag nanoparticle were discussed. At constant sputtering current and deposition time, the average sizes of Ag nanoparticles were 5.9 ± 1.8, 5.4 ± 1.3, and 3.8 ± 0.7 nm for the target-substrate distances of 10, 15, and 20 cm, respectively. The morphology evolution from nanoparticles to wormlike networks was also reported. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy image represented clear lattice fringes of Ag nanoparticles with a d-spacing of 0.203 nm, corresponding to the (200) plane. The technique could be applied for growth of nanoparticles that were previously difficult to control over size and size uniformity

Growth and Characterization of Nanostructured TiCrN Films Prepared by DC Magnetron Cosputtering

Nanostructured TiCrN films were grown on Si (100) wafers by reactive DC unbalanced magnetron cosputtering technique without external heating and voltage biasing to the substrates. The effects of Ti sputtering current on the chemical composition, chemical state, electronic structure, crystal structure, and morphology of the TiCrN films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. The results showed that all prepared films were formed as an understoichiometric (Ti, Cr)N solid solution with the fcc B1 type phase. The films exhibited a nanostructure with a crystallite size of less than 14 nm. The deconvolution of XPS spectra revealed the chemical bonding between Ti, Cr, N, and O elements. The addition of Ti contents led to the decrease of valence electrons filled in the d conduction bands which result in the change of binding energy of electrons in core levels. The roughness of the films was found to increase with increasing ITi. The cross-sectional morphology of the films showed columnar structure with dome tops