Study of the optical and photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ / In₂O₃ thin films

Full text: In recent years there has been growing concern about some substances in the aquatic environment such as methylene blue dye (MB), mainly from waste textile, with this in mind, thin films of TiO₂ / In₂O₃ were prepared by the polymerization method of complexes and calcined at 700 ° C to be used as photocatalysts. The results of x-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that there was no chemical interaction between the oxides (TiO₂/In₂O₃) in crystalline films. The morphology was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a mean grain size of 15 to 35 nm. The thin films of TiO₂/In₂O₃ were established as semiconductors with band gap energies Ex: 3.02 eV (TiO₂), 3.1 eV (In₂O₃) and 3.2 eV (TiO₂ / In₂O₃). UV-vis light absorption spectra have shown good degradation properties of methylene blue in the presence of TiO₂ / In₂O₃ thin films, which makes it possible to say that this material has remarkable photocatalytic activity under UV radiation. (author)