ISSN 0004-881X

TiO₂ Semiconductor – A Smart Self-Cleaning Material

by S.W. Lam, W.Y. Gan, K. Chiang, R. Amal

ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials, School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, The University of New South Wales, NSW, Sydney 2052, Australia

Abstract

Smart surfaces that required no activation of ultraviolet light to induce the uniform water sheeting across the surface was developed. The TiO2 thin films exhibited stable superhydrophlic wetting and antifogging behaviours after repetitive cycles of heat and wet treatment. Evidences have indicated that the superhydrophilic wetting and antifogging performance are affected by porosity and surface hydroxyl (-OH) contents. In this paper, the effect of multilayer assembly and the mechanism of which Carbowax interacted with TiO2 to induce the pore formation are discussed. Furthermore, the role of Carbowax in facilitating the formation of –OH is also presented.

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