Project Overview

Titanium dioxide, having anatase crystal phase, left alone has an optical band energy gap of 3.2 eV. Therefore, it can merely absorb UV light. In other words, ultraviolet light alone of less than 400 nm wavelength (ie, energetic at 3.1 eV) overlaps the optical band energy range of the titanium dioxide material alone, and radiation can be absorbed. Having an optical band energy gap lower than 3.1 eV is required for materials to absorb visible light. Only then, construction of devices that work with sunlight- for instance photovoltaic or photocatalsyt- can be made with these kinds of materials. In this project, oxide materials were produced by adding Copper to titanium-silicium mixture (TiSiCu) and the relation of optical band energy gap with Copper quantity and the observed changes were thoroughly examined. The materials produced in this project are capable of absorbing 30% of sunlight which is a dramatic increase on titanium dioxide\'s absorbance rate recorded as 5%.