TiO2 nanosheet array thin film for self-cleaning coating

A simple hydrothermal method is developed to directly grow TiO2 nanosheets on a bare glass substrate. By tuning the reaction conditions, the thickness of the TiO2 nanosheet layer can be tuned from tens to hundreds of nanometers. This TiO2 nanosheet layer exhibits good transparency due to the air pocket existing inside the thin film layer between nanosheets. On the other hand, the TiO2 layer has a good hydrophilic surface and good wettability, especially under UV light illumination. The degradation of dye (rhodamine B) results indicate that the TiO2 nanosheet coating has excellent photocatalytic activity. All these results demonstrate that the TiO2 nanosheet coating could be a highly transparent self-cleaning coating.