Laser induced photocatalytic activity enhancement of TiO₂ thin films

In this paper, the photocatalytic activity enhancement of TiO₂ thin films was realized by laser irradiation. The H₂ yield of the as-irradiated film is 79 μmol/(h*m²), which is 33% more than that of the as-deposited TiO₂ film. Spectrophotometer, X-ray diffraction and Raman system were employed to characterize the samples. The results showed that both the scanning rate and line spacing of the laser modification have effects on photocatalytic activity. It suggests that a phase junction is formed between the amorphous and rutile phases. The increment of H₂ generation could be attributed to the alignment of Fermi levels in the phase junction.