Effect of Au Nanoparticles Doping on The Properties of TiO2 Thin Films

Abstract

In this study, pure and gold (Au) nanoparticles doped TiO₂ thin films (Au/Ti = 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 at%) were prepared by sol-gel method and the impact of Au nanoparticles doping on the optical, structural and morphological properties of these thin films was examined. All thin films were characterized using ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The optical band gap of the thin films increases from 3.74 eV to 3.89 eV with the increase of Au nanoparticles concentrations due to the Moss-Burstein effect. XRD results show that all thin films have cubic poly-crystal structure and the intensities of peaks of the crystalline phase increased with the increase of Au nanoparticles concentrations. The AFM results indicate that the TiO₂ thin films are formed from the nanoparticles and the grain size of the films is changed with Au doping level. Consequently, it is shown that the structural, morphological and optical properties of the TiO₂ thin films could be changed by Au nanoparticles-doping.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.1.3709