Preparation of Nanosmooth Potassium Tetratitanate Films by Sol-Gel Method

A new nanosmooth potassium tetratitanate film was prepared on glass substrates by a sol-gel method using Ti(n-OC_4H_9)_4 and CH_3COOK as precursors.The surface structure of the film was analyzed by atomic force microscope(AFM).The crystal growth of potassium tetratitanate was characterized by TG and XRD.The photocatalytic decomposition of octadecyltrichlorosilane(OTS) based self-assembled monolayers(SAMs)formed on K_2Ti_4O_9 films was studied by using contact angle analysis.The results show that the films consist of fiat particles with the ratio of diameter to height about 11.The root mean square roughness(RMS)of the films measured on an area of 2μm×2μm in AFM images is 4.1nm.Densely packed OTS-SAMs similar in quality to those on TiO_2 are formed on K_2Ti_4O_9.K_2Ti_4O9 efficiently decomposes OTS-SAMs under UV irradiation in air.