Improvement of photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ thin film by Sn ion implantation

Environment pollution has become a serious question of environment protection. Many pollutants can be degraded by titanium dioxide (TiO₂), which gives a prospective method to purify pollutants in water. In this paper, transparent and colorless TiO₂ thin films were deposited onto microscope glass slides by means of a JGP-350C r.f. magnetron reactive sputtering system using Ar and O₂ as working gases. The films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer technologies. The photocatalytic activity of the film was tested on degradation of Rhodamine B dye. To improve the photocatalytic activity of the TiO₂ thin film, Sn ions were implanted into the TiO₂ thin film using an ion implantation method. The results indicated that Sn ion implantation efficiently improved the photocatalytic activity of the TiO₂ thin film.