| dc.description.abstract | The development of thin ceramic films has increased in importance throughout the science and industry communities. The distinct characteristics of the strength, transmittance in the visual spectrum, antimicrobial properties, and high refractive index have led to applications for antimicrobial films in hospitals, antireflection films for glass, and corrosion protection for industrial machinery. The approach to creating ceramic films was to use titanium dioxide nanoparticles suspended in a solution and deposit these particles on a steel substrate through electrophoretic deposition. The use of nanoparticles allows a film to be more uniform, more tightly packed, and have different qualities compared to bulk titanium dioxide. The method to achieve particle sizes less than 30nm for the work in this paper was centrifugation. Suspensions created with these nanopowders were evaluated for particle size, stability, and electrophoretic mobility. However, in each electrophoretic deposition experiment, precipitation inhibited the formation of satisfactory films. Focus turned to the Eu doped TiO2 sol-gel suspensions to try to obtain better films. The films created through dipcasting and through EPD using an ITO substrate produced more promising results. The films obtained through the dipcasting had a much different absorption rate per wavelength varied greatly from the films created through EPD, and both films looked uniform under SEM. This research discusses the size separation by particle size through centrifugation and the creation of nanoparticle thin TiO2 films using electrophoretic deposition. | |
