Dopamine/TiO2 hybrid thin films prepared by the liquid phase deposition method

Liquid phase deposition method is applied to one-step production of a hybrid material composed by dopamine(DA) and TiO2 anatase. An optimized amount of the enediol derivative is added to a fluoride titania precursor aqueous solution in order to entrap this modifier within the growing TiO2, yielding a DA/TiO2 nanocomposite material. Uniform, well-adhered and brown-colored thin films are deposited on indium tin oxide covered glass substrate. The DA/TiO2 hybrid material has been characterized by infrared spectroscopy, electronic microscopy, X-ray diffraction and UV-vis spectroscopy. The formation of the hybrid material seems to be reasonably explained by linkage of different TiO2 nanocrystallites taking advantage of both enediol and amine groups of DA.