Microstructure and wettability of Graphene Oxide/TiO2 thin film prepared via sol-gel method

Abstract

The microstructure of graphene oxide TiO2 (GO/TiO2) films on wettability and morphology properties were studied at different amount of Titanium isopropoxide with fixed amount of GO. GO/TiO2 thin films were prepared by using sol-gel method and deposited on glass substrate by spin-coating technique. The formation of GO/TiO2 was confirmed by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) study while the morphology of GO/TiO2 was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. The hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions of these films were examined by wettability test by measuring the water contact angle of the water drop on the surface of the coating. The wettability tests display that the contact angle of GO/TiO2 was increased from 90.0º to 118.7º after reduce the amount of titanium isopropoxide (TTIP). A small peaks of graphene and Ti were observed in the coated films and more pronounce peaks occur after the films were annealed. However, it was found that the annealing process does not improve the contact angle of the films as compared to the non-annealed films.