Significance of a Noble Metal Nanolayer on the UV and Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity of Anatase TiO Thin Films Grown from a Scalable PECVD/PVD Approach.

UV and visible light photocatalytic composite Pt and Au-TiO coatings have been deposited on silicon and glass substrates at low temperature using a hybrid ECWR-PECVD/MS-PVD process. Methylene blue, stearic acid, and sulfamethoxazole were used as dye, organic, and antibiotic model pollutants, respectively, to demonstrate the efficiency of these nanocomposite coatings for water decontamination or self-cleaning surfaces applications. Raman investigations revealed the formation of anatase polymorph of TiO in all synthesized coatings with a shifting of the main vibrational mode peak to higher wavenumber in the case of Au-TiO coating, indicating an increase number of crystalline defects within this coating.