Nano-sized blue spectral shift in sol–gel derived mesoporous titania films

Following the spectral energy shift of the energy gap (blue shift) of the TiO 2 sol–gel derived films we have evaluated diameters of the nanocrystallites. The TiO 2 films were deposited by dip-coating technique. Two types of mesoporous films were studied: films with porosity ~16% and refractive index (2.15 at wavelength 633 nm) and films with porosity ~46% and refractive index (1.61 at wavelength 633 nm). High porosity and consequently low refractive index was achieved by adding the non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100 to the starting solution as template. The principal goal of the work is to establish the influence of the Triton X-100 on the morphology as well as to establish a possible correlation between the morphology and optical features of the titania films. The surface morphology was explored using AFM method. And the energy gap was determined from the transmission spectra. Analysis of the blue energy spectral shift is performed following the excitonic model.