Micro/nanostructured thin films : synthesis by ALD of composites associating TiO2 inverse opals and gold nanoparticles for photocatalysis applications

The aim of this work was to improve the photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films, a semiconductor that is widely used for photocatalysis applications, particularly for the treatment of polluted water. For this purpose, two complementary approaches were studied: increasing the surface area available for photocalatytic reactions and coupling between TiO2 and gold nanoparticles.. For the first approach, TiO2 thin films with different morphological structures were fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition: dense and porous flat films, and inverse opals films.In order to evaluate photocatalytic activity of the different films, the degradation of methylene blue in aqueous solut…