Preparation of Titanium Dioxide, Copper Aluminium Oxide, and copper iron oxide nanoparticles films by sparking process

Abstract

The sparking process has been prepared a small particle, high porous films, and determine the ratio of composites. Moreover, this technique requires neither complicated steps nor template, fast, cheap, and non-toxic. Whereof, the sparking method has the ability to synthesize nanoparticles films in a rapid way, cost-effective and it can be done with any type of conductive or even semiconductor material. Therefore, in this research we studied Is the source of the change of wire types. To find new composites for future applications of photocatalytic. The first section focuses on the copper oxide (CuO), copper aluminium oxide (CuAl2O4, and CuAlO2) nanoparticles films prepared using a sparking process under atmospheric pressure. The as-deposited films were then annealed in the furnace at 400, 900, 1000, and 1100 °C for 1 h. The results have shown that the annealing temperature has direct effect to the morphology, the phase transformation and the optical properties. The optical band gap (Eg) of the as deposited films was 3.2 eV, while the annealed films at 400, 900, 1000 and 1100 °C were 3.3 , 3.4, 3.5, and 3.8 eV respectively. Furthermore, x- ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS spectra) confirmed that CuAlO2 in delafosite phase was formed on the annealed films at high temperature. In the second section, the copper aluminium oxide (CuAl2O4) / titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) copper oxide (CuO) composite films were successfully deposited on quartz substrate using a sparking process. The as-deposited films were then annealed at 300, 700 and 1100 °C for 1 h under atmospheric pressure. Morphology, structural and optical properties were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), XRD, XPS and UV/vis spectroscopy. The results show the nanoparticles with size of 20-50 nm deposited and aligned as a network on the substrate. The number of particles decreased with increased annealing temperature. Meanwhile, SAED and XRD patterns of the annealed films at 700 °C consisted a mixed phase of CuAl2O4, CuO, and TiO2-rutile. Interestingly, double band gap of 3.50 eV and 2.56 eV were obtained in the annealed films at 700 °C The photocatalytic activity of CuAl2O4/TiO2/CuO films annealed at 700 °C was optimized condition. This is because the double band gap composite films can reduce the e-/h+ pair recombination. Therefore, novel composite films after annealing at 700 °C can improve the photocatalytic efficiency under visible light. In the last section, the copper iron oxide composite films were successfully deposited on quartz substrate by sparking process. The nanoparticles were then deposited on the substrate after sparking off the Fe and Cu tips. The Cu:Fe ratios are 4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3, and 0:4 with a deposition rate of 52.33 nm/min for 10 min. The as-deposited films were then annealed at 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900 °C for 1 h under atmospheric pressure. The results show the optimum condition of Cu:Fe ratio and annealing temperature for methylene blue (MB) degradation were shown the ratio was optimized at 2:2, while the annealing temperature was optimized at 700 °C Morphology, chemical and optical properties were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS and UV/vis spectroscopy. The particle size of the as-deposited films was in the range of 191 nm. The morphology of the film annealed changed to be nanoparticles were aligned to networks of particles, when the annealing temperature at 700°C In which the particles are length equal to 1410 nm and width equal to 279 nm. Meanwhile, XRD and selected area diffraction (SAED) patterns of the annealed films at 700°C consisted a mixed phase of CuO, γ- Fe2O3, CuFe2O4 and CuFe2O. The energy bandgap (Eg) of the as-deposited Cu-Fe oxide films and the films annealed at 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900 °C had energy band gaps of 5.35 eV, 3.88 eV, 2.89 eV, 2.56 eV, 2.94 eV, and 5.63 eV, respectively. As a result, films annealed at 700 °C have a low bandgap, thereby affecting the material parameters. The photocatalytic activity of films annealed at 700°C was the optimized condition.