Photoinduced deposition of copper on nanocrystalline TiO2 films

Abstract

Nanocrystalline TiO2 films were prepared on glass supports by the dip coating technique using colloidal solutions consisting of 45 Angstrom particles as a precursor in order to probe the feasibility of exploiting solid state photocatalytic reactions for efficient metal deposition. Photoirradiation of nanocrystalline TiO2 films modified with the terdentate ligand (arginine) that covalently binds to the surface of TiO2 and at the same time chelate metal ions at the surface of TiO2 induced reduction of copper ions to metallic copper. Optical properties of the deposited metallic film as well as the possibility to apply this simple procedure in lithography are discussed.