Low temperature growth of photoactive titania by atmospheric pressure plasma

Atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma CVD was used to deposit thin films of titania at200 8C using two different precursors. The resulting films were characterised using techniques including XPS, RBS and XRD. It was established that annealing at temperatures as low as 275 8C produced crystalline films that were photocatalytically active. When annealed at 300 8C the photoactivity was greater than that of commercially available ‘‘self-cleaning’’ titania films. The effects of the different precursors, annealing times and temperatures on the crystallinity and photoactivity are discussed