Fabrication of Highly Oriented Titania Thin Film by Electrophoretic Deposition

Highly oriented titania thin films on Pt substrate were fabricated by electrophoretic deposition using the titania nanosheets as precursor. The titania thin films can be transformed to titanium oxide thin films when they are heated. The influence of suspension and deposition voltage on the formation of the film was investigated in this paper. The structure and morphology of thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. It is found that a film with smooth surface and well-organized layered structure is obtained in the suspension with the ratio of water to ethanol 1:1. The obtained thin film shows high b-axis orientation perpendicular to the substrate surface. The thickness of thin film increases with increasing of the deposition voltage. A (101) oriented TiO(2) thin film can be obtained when the titania thin film is heated at 500 degrees C. The film has uniform grains with an average grain size of 40 nm.