Recommendation CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

75 anatase and rutile phases approximately at ratio of 70:30. The surface porosity and crystallite size plays a role in achieving the anatase phase. iii. Through XRD calculation of Scherrer equation and comparison with the SEM images, the crystallite size for glass and stainless steel remained similarly the same, which is the range of 27 – 32 nm. While for AP, the anatase crystal was only shown in the thin film that was calcined at 160 °C. It is safe to say that the anatase crystal did not aggregated during the sol gel process but rather than during the calcinations of the thin film. The acidic solution may have an effect to the metallic substrate as it may lead to corrosion; therefore, it is recommended that this sol gel is modified to have a neutral pH in order to be able to be deposited onto different types of metallic substrates.

6.2 Recommendation

This project can be improved through these three steps: i. The sol gel dipping method can be improved by increasing the thickness of the thin film on the substrates through consecutive coatings up until 10-12 layers. In most studies, especially for glass and AP substrates, the coatings were performed in the range of 10-12 coatings in order to increase the film thickness. ii. In addition, a further study should focus on the crystallite transformation during the sol gel formulation. The anatase phase in AgTiO 2 sol gel can be enhanced with the hydrolysis increased at magnetically stirring at thermal temperature of 60-70°C in order to inhibit the crystallization transformation under the heating condition. Then the sol gel can be deposited onto polymers as the substrates need not go through higher temperature of calcinations. 76 iii. The future works of this project may lead to the study of the photocatalytic and antimicrobial test of the AgTiO 2 thin film as the photocatalytic depended on the crystallite phases and sizes, surface porosity and surface areas. Furthermore, the existence of AgTiO 2 will help to reduce the microbial activity by measuring the performance in the antimicrobial test. 77 7 References Atabaki, M. M., Jafar, R. Idris, J., 2010. Sol–Gel Bioactive Glass Coating For Improvement Of Biocompatible Human Body Implant. Association of Metallurgical Engineers of Serbia . Barati, N., Sani, M. F., Ghasemi, H. Sadeghian, Z., 2009. Preparation of uniform TiO 2 nanostructure film on 316L stainless steel by sol-gel dip coating. Applied Surface Science, Volume 255, p. 8328–8333. Brundle, C. R., Charles A. Evans, J., Wihon, S. Fitzpatrick, L. E., 1992. Encyclopedia of Materials Characterization: Surfaces, Interfaces, Thin Films. Stoneham, MA : Butterworth- Heinemann . Chen, Q., Liu, H., Ye, R. Lu, J., 2008. 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Recent Patents on Engineering, 23, pp. 157- 164. 80 8 Appendix Figure 8.1: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on glass – calcined at 200 °C Figure 8.2: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on glass – calcined at 400 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 2000 4000 6000 G 200 Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 2000 4000 6000 G 400b 81 Figure 8.3: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on glass – calcined at 600 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 2000 4000 6000 G 600a 82 Figure 8.4: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film coated onto Acrylic Perspex calcined at 160 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 unts 10000 20000 30000 40000 AP 160 C b Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 unts 10000 20000 30000 AP 120b 83 Figure 8.5: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film coated onto Acrylic Perspex calcined at 120 °C Figure 8.6: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on stainless steel – calcined at 200 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 2000 4000 6000 8000 SS 200a W-O RT 84 Figure 8.7: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on stainless steel – calcined at 400 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 2000 4000 6000 8000 SS 400a W-O RT 85 Figure 8.8: Glancing angle XRD pattern of AgTiO 2 thin film on stainless steel – calcined at 600 °C Position [°2Theta] Copper Cu 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Counts 5000 10000 SS 600 W-O RT 86 Table 3: XRD phase transition calculation Samples IR IA X Y Crystallite Size FHWM 2 cos SS_200wo 511.98 1021.14 61.19027104 38.52683288 27.29320871 0.2952 0.00515288 25.317 12.6585 0.975694 SS_400wo 365.7 1040.35 69.22004936 30.52638608 27.28804648 0.2952 0.00515288 25.2203 12.61015 0.975878 SS_600wo 430.71 526.33 49.13561764 50.56623001 32.75867684 0.246 0.004294067 25.4231 12.71155 0.97549 G_200 253.48 772.57 70.6690735 29.08428338 27.29310173 0.2952 0.00515288 25.315 12.6575 0.975697 G_400 225.76 965.41 77.17128523 22.619248 27.29267388 0.2952 0.00515288 25.307 12.6535 0.975713 G_600 253.94 1230.89 79.30358146 20.50131918 32.7524283 0.246 0.004294067 25.326 12.663 0.975676 AP_120 DIV0 DIV0 1 AP_160 1120.71 100 DIV0 81.8725715 0.0984 0.001717627 25.273 12.6365 0.975778 TiO2 Powder, 60 158.62 306.92 60.46799454 39.24722137 160.4565851 0.0502 0.000876269 25.1878 12.5939 0.97594 TiO2 Powder, 600 126.83 313.9 66.17616754 33.55734886 68.79817049 0.1171 0.002044046 25.2733 12.63665 0.975777 Ceramic Glass 592.02 933.11 55.47571416 44.22984398 96.36176535 0.0836 0.001459284 25.2465 12.62325 0.975828 Glazed Ceramic 509.6 1014.3 61.14130435 38.57566766 98.71948483 0.0816 0.001424373 25.2253 12.61265 0.975869 Non-glazed ceramic 270.84 1364.03 79.92475988 19.88452819 53.50076935 0.1506 0.002628807 25.3335 12.66675 0.975662