Highly Photocatalytically Active Iron(III) Titanium Oxide Thin films via Aerosol-Assisted CVD†

This paper presents, for the first time, the synthesis, via aerosol-assisted (AA)CVD followed by annealing at 620 °C for 5 h, of pure Fe₂TiO₅ thin films on glass. The thin film is deposited from a one pot solution containing titanium isopropoxide and tris(acetylacetonato)iron in an ethyl acetate solvent. The film is characterized using a range of techniques including powder X-ray diffraction(XRD), wavelength dispersive X-ray (WDX) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of the film under UVA and visible light irradiation is also tested. The results show that Fe₂TiO₅ is able to degrade resazurin redox dye under UVA illumination at a rate much higher than Pilkington NSG Activ^TM, with a formal quantum efficiency (FQE) an order of magnitude superior.