Investigation into the effects of deposition parameters on TiO2 photocatalyst thin films by rf magnetron sputtering

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalyst thin films were deposited on non-alkali glass substrates by radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering. The Taguchi method with orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio and analysis of variance were employed to study the performance characteristics. The experimental studies were conducted under different rf powers, sputtering pressures, O2/(Ar+O2) flow-rate ratios, and substrate temperatures. The deposited TiO2 films were of the anatase phase with a (101) preferred orientation. We performed both photoinduced decomposition of methylene blue (MB) and photoinduced hydrophilicity under UV light illumination. With the optimized TiO2 photocatalyst thin film deposition conditions, the water contact angle after 9 min UV illumination was approximately 5∘, the absorbance of MB was reduced to 0.2 for 240 min UV irradiation, and the deposition rate was 34.18 Å/min.