Superhydrophilic Fe3+ Doped TiO2 Films with Long-Lasting Antifogging Performance

Yi Yang; Tianyu Sun; Fuliang Ma; Liang-Feng Huang; Zhixiang Zeng

doi:10.1021/acsami.0c18444

Superhydrophilic Fe³⁺ Doped TiO₂ Films with Long-Lasting Antifogging Performance

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jan 20;13(2):3377-3386. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c18444. Epub 2021 Jan 5.

Authors

Yi Yang^{1

2}, Tianyu Sun^{1

2}, Fuliang Ma¹, Liang-Feng Huang¹, Zhixiang Zeng¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, P. R. China.
² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.

PMID: 33400484
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c18444

Abstract

Based on the superhydrophilicity of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) after ultraviolet irradiation, it has a high potential in the application of antifogging. However, a durable superhydrophilic state and a broader photoresponse range are necessary. Considering the enhancement of the photoresponse of TiO₂, doping is an effective method to prolong the superhydrophilic state. In this paper, a Fe³⁺ doped TiO₂ film with long-lasting superhydrophilicity and antifogging is prepared by sol-gel method. The experiment and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to investigate the antifogging performance and the underlying microscopic mechanism of Fe³⁺ doped TiO₂. Antifogging tests demonstrate that 1.0 mol % Fe³⁺ doping leads to durable antifogging performance which lasts 60 days. The DFT calculations reveal that the Fe³⁺ doping can both increase the photolysis ability of TiO₂ under sunlight exposure and enhance the stability of the hydroxyl adsorbate on TiO₂ surface, which are the main reasons for a long-lasting superhydrophilicity of TiO₂ after sunlight exposure.

Keywords: DFT calculations; Fe3+ doping; TiO2 film; long-lasting antifogging; recoverable superhydrophilicity.