Investigation of structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of mesoporous TiO2 thin film synthesized by sol–gel templating technique

TiO2 surfactant-templated nanostructured thin film was fabricated by supramolecular templating technique using TiCl4 and P-123 as raw material and surfactant, respectively. The film was produced by Sol–gel dip coating procedure due to its simple technique as well as relatively low cost. Characterization of the product was carried out by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface areas, thermogravimetry–differential scanning calorimetry (TG–DSC) and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. The as-prepared TiO2 film showed a quasi hexagonal mesostructure, and a further increase in the meso-scale order was observed after calcination. The prepared TiO2 film had a high surface area of 124 m2 g−1. The film was 2-μm thick and had a closely packed of anatase particles. The direct and indirect band gap of the film was estimated from UV–vis spectroscopy data to be 4.16 and 3.69 ev, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared TiO2 film was evaluated by Congo Red degradation. The film had excellent photocatalytic efficiencies and more than 80% Congo Red was decolorized in 60 min.