Interfaces of Stacking $TiO_2$ Thin Layers Affected on Photocatalytic Activities

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a wide bandgap semiconductor possessing photochemical stability and thus widely used for photocatalysis. However, enhancing photocatalytic efficiency is still a challenging issue. In general, the efficiency is affected by physio-chemical properties such as crystalline phase, crystallinity, exposed crystal facets, crystallite size, porosity, and surface/bulk defects. Here we propose an alternative approach to enhance the efficiency by studying interfaces between thin TiO2 layers to be stacked; that is, the interfacial phenomena influencing on the formation of porous structures, controlling crystallite sizes and crystallinity. To do so, multi-layered TiO2 thin films were fabricated by using a sol-gel method. Specifically, a single TiO2 thin layer with a thickness range of 20~40 nm was deposited on a silicon wafer and annealed at $600^{\circ}C$. The processing step was repeated up to 6 times. The resulting structures were characterized by conventional electron microscopes, and followed by carrying out photocatalytic performances. The multi-layered TiO2 thin films with enhancing photocatalytic efficiency can be readily applied for bio- and gas sensing devices.