The evolution of morphology of ordered porous TiO2 films fabricated from sol-gel method assisted ZnO nanorod template

Ordered porous TiO2 films, including TiO2 nanotube arrays, are fabricated by a sol-gel dip-coating approach via ZnO nanorod templates obtained from aqueous solution approach. The results indicate that the morphologies of ordered porous TiO2 films have been great affected by the sol-gel dip-coating cycle number. Open-ended TiO2 nanotube arrays can be obtained in optimum dip-coating cycle numbers. The TiO2 nanotubes with the inner diameter matching well with the diameters of ZnO nanorods, are well assembled and separate each other. When the cycle number is less than this optimum value, no intact porous TiO2 film can be obtained. As the cycle number is larger than this optimum value, an ordered porous TiO2 film with many throughout holes is formed. The evolutive mechanism of ordered porous TiO2 films is proposed.