Investigation of phase separation of nano-crystalline anatase from TiO2SiO2 thin film

In this work, a set of SiO2-TiO2 mixed oxides was prepared by the polymeric sol-gel route and deposited on glass substrate through the dip coating technique. Then, the effect of different important preparation parameters (sol-gel stabilizers, Ti content, and heat treatment) on the phase separation was investigated. The developed films were heat treated at 500 °C and characterized using TGA/DTA, FTIR, XRD, SEM, and AFM. The results showed that TiO2 segregation can be controlled by selecting an appropriate composition of diethanolamine (DEA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) for preparation of polymeric silica-titania sol. Besides, anatase phase in the samples were crystallized without any stabilizers within heat treatment procedure at 500 °C; however, using appropriate composition of DEA and MMA crystallization rate significantly decreased.