Nb, Ta and Hf - The Tri-dopant Tournament for the Enhancement of TiO2 Photochromism

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry 2023
Raivis Eglītis, Annija Kraukle, Krišjānis Šmits, Reinis Ignatāns, Kristaps Rubenis, Andris Šutka

TiO2 quantum dot (QD) size nanoparticle colloids have shown tremendous photochromic response. Here we show that the of the photochromic response of TiO2 QDs can be further enhanced by doping. Our synthesis approach allows to reach high nominal doping level by substituting up to 20 % of Ti in TiO2 without phase segregation simultaneously keeping particles in ultra-small. We compare the effect of different dopants (Nb5+, Hf4+ and Ta5+) on photochromic properties of TiO2 QDs. We show all dopants in study enhance the response kinetics and total transmittance change. From all three dopants, Nb5+ provides strongest response and fastest coloration while Hf4+ doped TiO2 QDs exhibit fastest recovery when the UV light is off. The presented insight in photochromic properties of doped TiO2 QDs will allow to develop photochromic devices and materials with better performance.

Keywords
Hf doped TiO2; Nb doped TiO2; Photochromism; Ta doped TiO2; TiO2 QDs
DOI
10.1016/j.jphotochem.2023.114620
Hyperlink
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1010603023000850?via%3Dihub

Eglītis, R., Kraukle, A., Šmits, K., Ignatāns, R., Rubenis, K., Šutka, A. Nb, Ta and Hf - The Tri-dopant Tournament for the Enhancement of TiO2 Photochromism. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 2023, Vol. 439, Article number 114620. ISSN 1010-6030. Pieejams: doi:10.1016/j.jphotochem.2023.114620

Publication language
English (en)