Modulation of morphology and optical characteristics of TiO2 grown into porous silicon by an easy approach

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics 2019-12, Vol.30 (24), p.21503-21513
• Main Authors: Garzon-Roman, A., Zúñiga-Islas, C., Quiroga-González, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetone; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Energy gap; Ethylene glycol; Materials Science; Morphology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Photoluminescence; Photovoltaic cells; Porous silicon; Precursors; Sensors; Silicon; Silicon substrates; Solar cells; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-019-02540-1

In this work, a straightforward solvothermal approach to growing titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) structures into porous silicon substrates was developed. It was possible to modulate the morphology and optical characteristics of TiO 2 by varying the concentration of the precursor and the kind of solvent. It was determined that these parameters strongly influence the morphology, photoluminescent response, bandgap, and structural characteristics of TiO 2 . The morphology of the TiO 2 particles deposited on the walls of porous Si can be modulated from elongated particles to nanoflakes by increasing the precursor concentration. On the other hand, their morphology is flake-like, semi-spherical, and sea urchin-like, for methanol, ethylene glycol, and acetone, respectively. The particle size also varies with the precursor concentration; the size is smaller for lower concentrations, producing that the bandgap and emission energy increase. The variety of TiO 2 structures presented in this work, with different properties, can find potential applications in photocatalysis, solar cells, and sensing devices.