Preparation and Characterization of TiO2-Hybrid SiO2 Porous Film

Porous silicon films are currently under intense investigation for optical, photoelectric, thermal and electronic applications. In this work, the silica films have been prepared by a sol-gel process using a CTAB template. As an improvement, TiO₂ was doped in silica sol to produce the TiO₂-hybrid SiO₂ Porous Film, and the hydrophobic activation of the film was carried out. The chemical and physical changes during sol-gel process were analyzed using DSC-TGA and FTIR. The structure and morphology of films were characterized by XRD and AFM. The experimental results show that the fabricated films have a nano-porous structure. The porous silica film (mean pore size 50 nm) is about 500 nm thick. The mechanical reliability of the film is well, and the contact angle of film is above 90deg after hydrophobic activation.