Morphological and Stru crural Ch a r a cter iz.a tion of Ti02/N b20S Composite Electrode Thin Films Synthesized by Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) Technique

Abstract

Composite electrodes of titanium dioxide (Ti02) and niobium (v) oxide (Nb?05) have been deposited onto glass substrates by electrophoretic deposition (EPO) technique. The mechanism of EPO involves charged particles in a liquid suspension being forced to move towards and deposit on an oppositely charged electrode upon application of electric field. In this study, TiO? and Nb-O, nano-sized powders were suspended In a Pyrex glass containing propan-Zvo]. Magnesium nitrate hexahydrate (lvlg (N03)·6H20) pellets were added to the suspension to induce surface charges on the metal oxides The Structure of the thin films was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) while morphology was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The XRD spectra indicated that the films are of polvcrystalline nature and that Ti02 and Nb20s panicles were present in the deposited composite film. Transmittance of the deposited films was measured using the UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer spectra in the range 200 to 3200nlll The visual inspection of the films and the morphological investigations from SE)") showed that porous films of high quality with well controlled morphology can be deposited using the EPD technique. Further work is needed to evaluate the potential of