Deposition of photocatalytic titania coatings on polymeric substrates by HiPIMS

Titania coatings have been deposited onto PET substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering in the HiPIMS (high power impulse magnetron sputtering) mode and for comparison, pulsed DC mode. In the latter case, the substrate showed evidence of melting, but the HiPIMS results were dependent on the characteristics of the power supply when operating under nominally identical conditions. A coating deposited by one of the HiPIMS supplies was found to have a mixed phase structure and to demonstrate a level of photocatalytic activity comparable to conventional coatings which had been post-deposition annealed.