Study of effect annealing temperature on the structure, morphology and photocatalytic activity of Si doped TiO2 thin films deposited by electron beam evaporation

► Si-TiO2 target has been simply prepared and the corresponding film was deposited on quartz glass substrates by electron beam evaporation. ► It can be demonstrated the annealing temperature had significant effect on the structure, phase transition temperature and surface morphology of Si-TiO2 thin films. ► The Si-TiO2 films exhibit better photocatalytic efficiency owing to the reduction of the photo-generated electron and holes recombination rate under illumination.