Premium
Effect of Annealing Temperature on Structural and Optical Properties of ZnTiO 3 Perovskite Layers Deposited on Silicon for Photocatalytic Applications
Author(s) -
Hammedi Khadija,
Dkhili Marwa,
Khalifa Marouan,
AlvarezGalvan Consuelo,
Ouertani Rachid,
Aouida Selma,
Ezzaouia Hatem
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.202100215
Subject(s) - materials science , photocatalysis , photodegradation , annealing (glass) , crystallite , spin coating , thin film , silicon , chemical engineering , band gap , sol gel , surface roughness , analytical chemistry (journal) , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , composite material , catalysis , metallurgy , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
In this paper, we investigate the effect of annealing temperature on structural, optical, and photocatalytic properties of nanostructured ZnTiO3 thin films deposited on Si substrates. ZnTiO3 coatings were prepared by consecutive sol‐gel method and further deposited on Si substrates by spin‐coating. The obtained films were annealed at three various temperatures namely 700 °C, 800 °C, and 900 °C. X‐ray diffraction analysis shows that the crystallite size of the films grows from 100 to 125 nm as the annealing temperature increases from 700 to 900 °C. At the same time, the roughness increases from 232 to 289 nm and the band gap dwindles from 3.73 to 3.05 eV. ZnTiO3 coatings annealed at 700 °C exhibits the highest photodegradation rate about 74 % to catalyze the degradation of the Methylene Blue aqueous solution. We demonstrate that this high photocatalytic activity is attributed to the structural and optical properties of prepared samples.