Functional behaviour of TiO₂ films doped with noble metals

Abstract

To evaluate the effects of different concentrations of noble metal in a TiO₂ matrix, different films of both Ag/TiO₂ and Au/TiO₂ systems were prepared. Mechanical and tribological characterisation was carried out to evaluate the coating response as a function of the noble metal composition and (micro)structure of the films. The overall set of results indicates that the amorphous films reveal better results than the crystalline ones. For the amorphous samples, the reduced Young's modulus and the adhesion critical loads followed similar tendencies in both sets of films. Wear rates were similar for all samples except for the one with the highest silver content. To improve brittleness of TiO₂ films, the results seem to indicate that a slight metal doping is preferred, and Au proved to be a better choice than Ag. In fact, the sample with the lowest Au content revealed a better mechanical behaviour than the pure TiO₂ film.

Keywords:

• Magnetron sputtering
• Thin films
• Brittleness
• Noble metal doping
• Titanium dioxide