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Nano gold-coated surface patterned mesoporous titanium tin oxide sol–gel thin film: fabrication, optical and photoelectrochemical properties

  • Original Paper: Functional coatings, thin films and membranes (including deposition techniques)
  • Published:
Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nano noble metal coating on surface patterned mesoporous semiconductor thin film can play an important role in enhancing visible light harvesting efficiency (LHE) towards improvement in photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity of the material. In this work, one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) mesoscale surface patterns have been created on sol–gel-based titanium tin oxide (TSO) nanostructured thin film on pure silica/indium tin oxide-coated glass by soft lithography. The TSO film matrix is observed to be mesoporous and semicrystalline as evidenced from the structural characterization by transmission electron microscopy and measurement of atmospheric ellipso-porosimetry, respectively. The 2D patterned film exhibits maximum LHE value in visible wavelength region. Further film surface modification has been carried out by depositing nano Au coating onto the bare patterned TSO films by a low temperature solution technique. Under visible light, a significant improvement in PEC activity is found and the gold-coated patterned 2D film shows higher visible LHE as well as >2.7 times higher photocurrent density than bare 2D film. This facile fabrication strategy can create an avenue toward improvement in LHE vis-à-vis the PEC activity of mesoporous mixed metal oxide semiconductor thin film.

Highlights

  • Fabricated 1D/2D patterned mesoporous tin titanium oxide sol–gel thin films.

  • Deposited nano Au onto the patterned films.

  • Au-coated 2D patterned film showed better visible light harvesting efficiency.

  • The 2D patterned film exhibited an improved photoelectrochemical activity.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thankfully acknowledge the help rendered by Central Characterization Division, CSIR-CGCRI, Kolkata, India for several characterizations of samples. The work had been done under 12th Five Year Plan Project (No. ESC0202) of CSIR, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sol–Gel Division, CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CSIR-CGCRI), 196 Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Jadavpur, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Hasmat Khan, Malobi Seth, Atanu Naskar & Sunirmal Jana

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  1. Hasmat Khan
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  2. Malobi Seth
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Correspondence to Sunirmal Jana.

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Khan, H., Seth, M., Naskar, A. et al. Nano gold-coated surface patterned mesoporous titanium tin oxide sol–gel thin film: fabrication, optical and photoelectrochemical properties. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 88, 359–370 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4818-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4818-4

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