Novel SiO/HTiO·HO-Nanochain Composite with High UV-Visible Photocatalytic Activity for Supertransparent Multifunctional Thin Films.

In the current work, a peroxo titanium complex (PTC) solution was used as a novel water-soluble precursor to fabricate HTiO·HO and the SiO/HTiO·HO-nanochain composite at low temperature (90-100 °C). The average width of HTiO·HO nanochains is 4.5 ± 1.5 nm. Under full-spectrum irradiation, the Si/Ti-nanochain composite showed good UV-visible light absorption and excellent photocatalytic activity, which is 2.8 times that of P25. In the composite, SiO not only contributes to the formation of nanochains and improves the catalytic performance of HTiO·HO but also reduces the refractive index of the complex. When coated on transparent organic substrates, the composite thin film exhibited excellent antireflective (as high as 99.3% on PC and 98.9% on PMMA) and self-cleaning properties. Pencil hardness, washing, and tape adhesion tests showed favorable adhesion-to-substrate and mechanical robustness of thin films, which make them extremely attractive for applications as highly transparent and self-cleaning thin films on lenses, photovoltaic cells, and windows of high-rise buildings.