Influences of working pressure on properties for TiO2 films deposited by DC pulse magnetron sputtering

TiO2 films were deposited at room temperature by DC pulse magnetron sputtering system. The crystalline structures, morphological features and photocatalytic activity of TiO2 films were systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ultraviolet spectrophotometer, respectively. The results indicated that working pressure was the key deposition parameter influencing the TiO2 film phase composition at room temperature, which directly affected its photocatalytic activity. With increasing working pressure, the target self-bias decreases monotonously. Therefore, low temperature TiO2 phase (anatase) could be deposited with high working pressure. The anatase TiO2 films deposited with 1.4 Pa working pressure displayed the highest photocatalytic activity by the decomposition of Methyl Orange solution, which the degradation rate reached the maximum (35%) after irradiation by ultraviolet light for 1 h.