Preparation of TiO2 sol-gel layers on glass

TiO2 thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates by sol-gel process using dip coating method. The coating solution was prepared by using tetra-n-butylorthotitanate precursor The thermal transformation behaviour of the fresh xerogel was followed by thermal analysis and powder X-ray diffraction. The gels annealed at temperatures up to 350degreesC were examined by XRD and found to be amorphous. The diffraction peaks of anatase were found in gels annealed at 350degreesC or higher temperatures. The successive dense and homogenous films were optically characterized using UV-spectrophotometry. It was observed that the films were transparent in visible region and showed characteristic absorption in UV region.