Photocatalytic and Self-Cleaning Properties of TiO2-Cu Thin Films on Glass Substrate

TiO2-Cu thin films containing 0 to 1%Cu coated on glass slides were prepared by sol gel-dip coating method. The prepared thin films were synthesized at the temperature of 400 ◦C for 2 h with a heating rate of 10◦C/min. The microstructures of synthesized TiO2-Cu thin films were characterized by XRD, FT-IR and SEM. The photocatalytic activities of TiO-2Cu thin films were tested using methylene blue (MB) solution under UV irradiation. Finally, the self-cleaning property was evaluated by means of contact angle of water droplet on the films. The results show all samples have the thickness in range of 1 um and surfaces are dense with a large surface area. It can be noted that TiO2-1.0Cu thin films were found to give the highest photocatalytic efficiency and exhibited self-cleaning effect (small contact angle, 17°) under UV irradiation.