Abstract
Highly porous zinc oxide (ZnO) film was produced by using reactive magnetron sputtering zinc target followed by wet oxidation. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) was mixed to the porous films by using either TiO2 target magnetron sputter deposition or sol-spin method. The film thickness could reach 50 mu m with uniform porosity. On the sputtering prepared ZnO-TiO2 film surface, fine nanorods with small anatase TiO2 nano-clusters on the tips were observed by SEM and TEM, and the titanium (Ti) composition was determined by XPS as 0.37%. The sol-spin treatment could increase the Ti composition to 4.9%, with reduced pore size compared to the untreated ZnO porous film. Photoluminescence measurements showed that the Ti containing porous film has strong ultraviolet-visible light emission. In the photo-catalysis testing, ZnO and ZnO-TiO2 have similar photo-catalysis activity under 365 nm UV irradiation, but under visible light, the photocatalysis activities of ZnO-TiO2 films were twice higher than that of ZnO porous film, implying promising applications of this porous oxide composite for industrial and dairy farm wastewater treatment.