Investigation of Photocatalytic Activity of Anatase Titanium Dioxide Prepared by DC Reactive Magnetron Sputtering for Air Pollutants Degradation

Abstract

In the present work, Titanium dioxide nanostructure were prepared by dc closed-field unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering system using different values of Ar∶O₂ gas mixing ratios. The magnetron sputtering system's operation parameters were optimized to prepare TiO₂ nanostructures as thin films with optical and structural homogeneity. The X-ray diffraction patterns and UV-visible spectroscopy show that the prepared films contain an anatase structure and an optical energy band gap of 3.2 eV. The production of Ti–O bonds has been confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The TiO₂ particles in the deposited films had an average size of 47.44 nm. TiO₂ as active photocatalyst material is employed in the field of air purification through using methane gas as an organic pollutant. The material's photocatalytic activity was evaluated by test the deterioration of polluted gas in the presence of a xenon lamp using an appropriate gas sensor (MQ2 gas sensor).