Synthesis and Characterization of Cu Doped TiO2 Thin Films to Protect Agriculturally Beneficial Rhizobium and Phosphobacteria from UV Light

By using sol-gel dip coating technique, it was observed that Cu doped TiO2 thin films with different thickness were deposited on the microscopic glass substrates. The influence of prepared Cu-TiO2 thin films’ thickness (5, 7, and 9 dip coatings) on the structural, morphological and optical properties was analyzed by various characterization techniques. The results proved that the thicker the prepared samples, the more will be crystalline improvisation, UV absorbance enhancement and band gap reduction. It was observed that average grain size would increase from 55.26nm to 66.16nm if the thickness of the film increased from 1.06μm to 1.70μm. The optical band gap energy decreased as 3.2 eV, 3.0 eV and 2.8 eV respectively for 5, 7 and 9 layered thin films. Also the intensity of PL spectra of Cu doped TiO2 thin films increased due to its distinctive high photon absorption. The present work ascertains the performance of multilayer coated Cu-TiO2 thin films on protecting soil beneficial microorganisms from UV light radiation. UV screening feature of Cu-TiO2 thin films efficiently safeguards bacterial colonies against UV light. Further, the raised thickness (9 dip) of Cu-TiO2 thin film shows the high survival rate of bacterial colonies since they absorb much incident UV irradiation. Hence the environment friendly Cu doped TiO2 thin films can be used as a low cost UV filter to protect microorganisms.