Application of Taguchi method to study morphological evolution of TiO2 nanotubes obtained via anodization process

Abstract

The growth of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TiO2) via anodization process depends on the controlling parameters such as applied potential, anodization time, and electrolyte composition. In the present work, the Taguchi method was applied to evaluate statistically the influence of the anodization parameters on the morphology of anodized TiO2 films. Mixture of ethylene-glycol and glycerol was used as an electrolyte and the settings of the experimental design were parameterized on the basis of four important anodization factors consisting of chemical pretreatment, amount of fluoride, water content and applied potential. Samples were characterized by XRD and FEG-SEM. Based on 4 variables at 3 different settings, full factorial plan requires 34 = 81 tests. In this work the experiment was designed on the basis of an L9 (34) orthogonal array (4 variables, 3 levels, 9 tests). The optimum conditions were found on the basis of smaller-is-better and larger-is-better analyses. The signal-to-noise ratio was employed to find optimal process parameters levels and to analyze the influence of these parameters on the tubular length, internal and external diameters and formation of nanograss on the film surface. Hence, it is clearly shown that the performance of TiO2 nanotubes can be evaluated by the Taguchi method.