Improvement of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 thin film by Sn ion implantation

Environment pollution has become a serious question of environment protection. Many pollutants can be degraded by titanium dioxide (TiO2), which gives a prospective method to purify pollutants in water. In this paper, transparent and colorless TiO2 thin films were deposited onto microscope glass slides by means of a JGP-350C r.f. magnetron reactive sputtering system using Ar and O-2 as working gases. The films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Xray photoclectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis-NIR spectropho to meter technologies. The photocatalytic activity of the film was tested on degradation of Rhodaminc B dye. To improve the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 thin film, Sri ions were implanted into the TiO2 thin film using an ion implantation method. The results indicated that Sri ion implantation efficiently improved the photocatalytic activity of the TiO2 thin film. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.