Optical, Surface Morphological, And Antibacterial Properties of Nanostructured Tio2:M (M=Fe, Ce, Ag) Thin Films

Author : F. E. Ghodsi, H. Dadvar and G. Khayati, (Iran)

Abstract                                                                           

In this research, undoped and doped (Fe, Ce, and Ag) antibacterial coatings of nanostructured TiO₂ films were prepared by a sol-gel dip coating method. Doped and undoped TiO₂ films were excited with ultraviolet (UV) radiation to improve their photo catalytic activity. The antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria was studied using an antibacterial–drop test and colony count method. The Fe doped TiO₂ films exhibited higher antibacterial activity than other samples. The percent of bacteria killing or killed (PBK) on bare glass substrate, undoped, Ce, Ag, and Fe doped TiO₂ thin films (after UV illumination) were 23.8, 50.3, 57.8, and 70.1%, respectively. Uv-Visible Spectrophotometry, Photoluminescence (PL), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were carried out to study the relation between optical, luminescence, structural, and surface morphological characteristics of the samples with their antibacterial activities. Several parameters such as thickness of the films, porosity in the films, crystallization, and surface morphology affect the antibacterial activity of transition metal doped TiO₂ thin films.

Keywords:  Titanium oxide, Optical properties, Surface morphology, XRD, Antibacterial.