Volume 7 • Issue 3 • 1000257 J Phys Chem Biophys, an open access journal ISSN: 2161-0398 Open Access Research Article Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics J o u r n a l o f P h y s i c a l C h e m i s t r y & B i o p h y s i c s ISSN: 2161-0398 Sahbeni et al., J Phys Chem Biophys 2017, 7:3 DOI: 10.4172/2161-0398.1000257 *Corresponding author: Sahbeni K, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, 48, Vasileos Constantinou Ave., 11635 Athens, Greece, Tel: +21698713283; E-mail: sahbani_kaouther@hotmail.fr Received September 28, 2017; Accepted October 08, 2017; Published October 14, 2017 Citation: Sahbeni K, Sta I, Jlassi M, Kandyla M, Hajji M, et al. (2017) Annealing Temperature Effect on the Physical Properties of Titanium Oxide Thin Films Prepared by the Sol-Gel Method. J Phys Chem Biophys 7: 257. doi: 10.4172/2161- 0398.1000257 Copyright: © 2017 Sahbeni K, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract In this work, the low-cost sol–gel, spin-coating technique was used to grow TiO2 thin flms on silicon substrates. The infuence of annealing temperature on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of TiO2 flms is investigated. The structural properties of the TiO2 flms are investigated by Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. Morphological properties are studied by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The optical properties are examined by photoluminescence (PL) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. Annealing Temperature Effect on the Physical Properties of Titanium Oxide Thin Films Prepared by the Sol-Gel Method Sahbeni K 1,2,6 *, Sta I 2,3 , Jlassi M 3,4 , Kandyla M 6 , Hajji M 3,5 , Kompitsas M 6 and Dimassi W 1 1 Laboratoire Photovoltaïque, Centre de Recherche et des Technologies de l’Energie, Technopole de Borj-Cedria, BP 95, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia 2 Faculté des sciences de Bizerte, 7021 Jarzouna, Tunisia 3 Laboratoire de Semi-conducteur, Nano-structure et Technologie Avancée, Centre de Recherche et des Technologies de l’Energie, Technopole de Borj-Cedria, BP 95, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia 4 Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Technologies du Design. Université de la Manouba, P5, Den Den, Tunisia 5 Ecole Nationale d’Electronique des Communication de Sfax, Technopôle de Sfax, Route de Tunis Km 10, Cité El Ons, BP 1163, 3021, Sfax, Tunisia 6 National Hellenic Research Foundation, Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, 48, Vasileos Constantinou Ave., 11635 Athens, Greece Keywords: Tin flms; Titanium oxide; Sol-gel; Annealing temperature; Physical properties Introduction Titanium fnds more and more applications today. Over 96% of the world-wide use of titanium is in its oxide form, TiO 2 (titanium dioxide), thus creating a high demand for this material, due to a wide range of potential applications for environmental purposes [1]. It is extensively used for photo degradation of organic and inorganic pollutants [2], photovoltaic energy production [3], hydrogen production by water photo-splitting [4,5], and gas sensing [6,7]. Tis variety of applications is because of TiO 2 low cost, non-toxicity, as well as useful optical, physical, chemical, and electronic properties, including excellent transmittance of visible light, photo catalytic behavior, high dielectric constant, high refractive index, and high chemical stability [8,9]. It is well known that TiO 2 is an n-type semiconductor with an indirect energy band gap [6,10,11]. It generally crystallizes in three phases, the tetrahedral anatase (space group I4 1 /amd, density=3.894 g/cm 2 ), rutile (space group P4 2 /mnm, density=4.25 g/cm 2 ) and orthorhombic brookite (space group Pcab, density=4.12 g/cm 2 ). Te anatase and rutile phases belong to diferent space groups but both have a tetragonal crystal lattice. Rutile is the most stable form of TiO 2 , whereas anatase and brookite are metastable and transform to the rutile phase upon heating [6,12-14]. Conventional methods to prepare TiO 2 thin flms are pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [15,16], RF magnetron sputtering [17-19] plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition [20], and sol-gel methods [6,15,21,22], among others. Focusing on the sol- gel method, it is one of the most attractive techniques for thin-flm deposition, because of low cost, non-vacuum requirements, large area deposition, and low temperature processing. Furthermore, the sol-gel method produces thin flms which have good homogeneity, excellent compositional control, and good electrical and optical properties [23]. Te efect of the annealing temperature on TiO 2 powders has been ofen reported in the literature [11-13]. Mathpal et al. have studied the efect of annealing temperature on the structural and luminescence properties of TiO 2 powders [12]. Another study has investigated the efect of the annealing temperature on TiO 2 thin flms, prepared by the sol-gel method and dip-coating techniques [22]. Tese studies have that the annealing temperature infuences the structural and optical properties of TiO 2 thin flms. Fewer articles investigate the phase transition (from anatase to rutile) of TiO 2 thin flms obtained by the sol-gel and spin coating techniques with annealing temperature, as most articles study the properties of these flms at lower temperatures [6]. Hence, we performed this work to understand the physical properties of TiO 2 sol-gel more systemically and deeply. Te TiO 2 thin flms are prepared by the sol-gel spin coating method and annealed between 40 and 900°C. Te variation of structural properties of the thin flm was studied through Raman, FTIR, PL spectroscopy and AFM microscopy. Te crystalline structure, surface morphology and optical properties of the TiO 2 thin flm were then studied and discussed. All results indicate the dependence of the formed phases (anatase, rutile, or mixed anatase-rutile phase) of TiO 2 thin flms on the annealing temperature and indicate a phase transition which starts at 600°C. Tis simple and no toxic method provided us results similar to those given by other method more difcult and requires hard realization conditions, in one hand. In other hand, we have shown that TiO 2 thin flms deposed in silicon substrates is a good agent to produce antirefecting coating for solar cells. Experimental Te precursor solutions of TiO 2 , prepared by the sol-gel method, were obtained using titanium (IV) isopropoxide (C 12 H 28 O 4 Ti) as the starting material. Te titanium (IV) isopropoxide was initially added in a mixture of ethanol and monoethanolamine (MEA) and the