Talk
Friday, April 12th, 2013
- Speaker
- Nikos Katsarakis
- Affiliation
- IESL, FORTH and TEI of Crete, Greece
- Title
- Metal oxide thin films and nanostructures for energy-control and environmental applications
- Location
- Department of Physics Bldg., Voutes, 3rd floor Seminar Room
- Time
- 16:00
- Language
- English
- Abstract
- Metal oxide thin films and nanostructures offer a wide range
of potential applications including photocatalysis of organic
pollutants, "self-cleaning" surfaces and energy-efficient glass
windows. We have applied simple, low-cost, environmental-friendly
chemical techniques like sol-gel, spray pyrolysis, chemical vapour
deposition and solution-based approaches to grow metal oxide thin
films and nanostructures on glass, sapphire and plastic substrates.
In particular, TiO2, TiO2:SiO2, ZnO,
WO3 and VOx thin films and nanostructures
have been grown by chemical methods on various substrates
at relatively low temperatures and their structural, morphological
and optical properties were investigated. Moreover,
the metal oxide samples were comprehensively studied with respect
to their photocatalytic efficiency regarding the degradation
of stearic acid, their "self-cleaning" properties and electrochemical
response. Several issues, including how growth parameters
(precursor solution, temperature, growth time etc) affect metal oxide
properties as well as the potential for technological applications,
will be discussed.