Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 99, 29 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2024230239

Original Article

Anatase TiO₂ film with dominant (001) facets prepared by radio frequency atmospheric pressure plasma

¹ College of science, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, P.R. China
² Textile Key Laboratory for Advanced Plasma Technology and Application, China National Textile & Apparel Council, Shanghai 201620, P.R. China
³ Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Center, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 201620, P.R. China

^* e-mail: jingzh@dhu.edu.cn; yuxu@dhu.edu.cn

Received: 21 December 2023
Accepted: 18 July 2024
Published online: 5 November 2024

Abstract

Anatase TiO₂ nanosheets film with dominant (001) facets (TF-1) has attracted widespread research interest owing to wide-ranging industrial applications and fundamental importance. In this work, we prepared TF-1 with well adhesion on quartz substate in a short time (20 min) by radio frequency (RF) pulse-modulated plasma with hydrofluoric acid (HF) as the morphology controlling agent (MCA). Many intercrossed nanosheets were observed on the surface of TF-1 through SEM images, which provides more exposed reactive (001) facets. The degree of truncation (B/A) and the percentage of exposed (001) facets (S₀₀₁/S) were estimated by XRD patterns and Raman spectra, which have been increased due to the presence of HF. XPS results indicate that F atoms are only adsorbed on anatase surface rather than doped into TiO₂ lattice. The functions of HF on the growth of anatase TiO₂ nanosheets were studied by density functional theory (DFT), revealing the stabilization effects associated with chemisorbed fluorine (F) atoms over (001) surface, and thus stimulating its preferred growth.