Optical and structural properties of sol-gel derived brookite TiO2-SiO2 nano-composite films with different SiO2:TiO2 ratios

In this study, TiO2-SiO2 nano-composite films were synthesized on glass substrates wıth spin coating method. The optical and structural properties of TiO2-SiO2 films were determined for different SiO2:TiO2 volume ratios. The properties of TiO2-SiO2 nano-composite films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy (UV–vis), Perkin–Elmer Lambda-900 spectroscopy. The band gap energy values of the films and the crystal size of TiO2 nanoparticles in TiO2-SiO2 nano-composite films were controlled by changing SiO2:TiO2 ratios. The activation energy for the particle growth of SnO2 nanostructured films, which was determined as 15.8 kJ/mol.