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Reversible photochromic effect in the TiO2—polymer hybrid system

  • Original Paper: Functional coatings, thin films and membranes (including deposition techniques)
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Abstract

The photochromism of poly methyl methacrylate–TiO2 composites have been investigated in this research. Amorphous titanium oxide was synthesized by sol–gel using titanium isopropoxide. The titanium solution was mixed with a dissolved polymer. The composite shows photo-response under UV radiation by changing, generally, to a dark brown tonality. This effect was reversible in different time ranges according to the intensity and exposure time. The mechanism for this photochromic change was proposed as a reduction of TiOOH domains to Ti3+ and not directly from amorphous TiO2, which provide electron-hole pairs after absorbing UV. The backscattered electrons image shows the clusters or domains of titanium compounds as white dots, ranging from 0.1 to 1 μm. The electron spin resonance spectroscopy signals indicated a titanium valence change from Ti(IV) to Ti(III). The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy peaks positions for Ti 2p1/2 and Ti 2p3/2 were assigned as Ti4+. The values were obtained for Ti 2p3/2 and the identified species were Ti4+ and Ti3+, that correspond to TiO2, Ti2O3, and Ti(OOH). Few and small crystalline domains were identified by Transmission Electron Microscope as orthorhombic TiO2.’

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Carlos Angeles (IMP) for TEM Images, to Rosendo López (UAM-I) for UV-Vis Spectra and to Dr. Alejandro Solano (UNAM) for ESR spectra. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT, Grant CB-2009-01 133157). In addition, the authors acknowledges CONACYT for the graduate fellowships. Special thanks to the Centro de Nanociencias y Micro y Nanotecnologías (CNMN)-IPN for their help in doing the XPS, ellipsometry and SEM analyses shown. The authors gratefully acknowledge Eric Albert Huston for his valuable comments about improving this written work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico en Electroquímica, S.C., Parque Tecnológico Querétaro-Sanfandila, Pedro Escobedo, C.P. 76703, Qro, Mexico

    Ll. M. Flores Tandy, J. J. Pérez Bueno, Y. Meas Vong & I. Zamudio Torres

  2. Centro de Nanociencias y Micro y Nanotecnologías del I.P.N., Luis Enrique Erro s/n, Unidad Profesional Adolfo López Mateos, Col. Zacatenco, Del. Gustavo A. Madero, Cd. de México, D.F., Mexico, C.P. 07738

    L. Lartundo Rojas, Claudia Jazmín Ramos Torres & Hugo Martínez Gutiérrez

  3. Tecnológico Nacional de México, Instituto Tecnológico de Querétaro, Av. Tecnológico s/n Esq. Mariano Escobedo, Col. Centro, Querétaro, C.P.76000, Qro, Mexico

    M. L. Mendoza López

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  1. Ll. M. Flores Tandy
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  2. J. J. Pérez Bueno
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  3. Y. Meas Vong
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  8. M. L. Mendoza López
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Correspondence to J. J. Pérez Bueno.

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Tandy, L.M.F., Bueno, J.J.P., Vong, Y.M. et al. Reversible photochromic effect in the TiO2—polymer hybrid system. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 82, 51–58 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4292-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4292-9

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