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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Effect of copper intermediate nanoclusters on the photonic efficiency and hydrophilicity of titanium dioxide nanolayers

Ali Asghar Khakpoor*
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1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Tehran Central Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
BMT, 156 https://doi.org/10.12336/bmt.25.00156
Submitted: 22 August 2025 | Revised: 6 June 2026 | Accepted: 30 July 2026 | Published: 3 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). Licensee Biomaterials Translational, USA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en)
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Abstract

Photocatalytic titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings have been widely used as self-cleaning and antibacterial materials in biomaterials and implantable biomedical devices. Given the direct relationship between hydrophilicity and the photocatalytic process in TiO2 layers, this study aimed to improve both properties. Copper (Cu) nanoclusters with sizes of 10 ± 2 nm and 20 ± 4 nm were grown on quartz substrates using a transmission electron microscopy grid by electron beam deposition. Subsequently, a TiO2 layer with a thickness of 350 ± 35 nm was deposited on the nanoclusters. For comparison, a TiO2 layer was also deposited on quartz substrates. The samples were heat-treated at 700 and 1000°C. The surface morphology, porosity, and roughness of the nanolayers were investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. In contrast, the crystal structure and the effect of Cu nanoclusters on the crystalline phase transition were investigated using X-ray diffraction. The presence of Cu nanoclusters and their increased thickness slightly shifted the absorption edge toward the visible light region. The static contact angle of a water droplet on the surface of the layers was determined using a wettability test. The photonic efficiency of the nanolayers was evaluated according to ISO 10678:2010.

Keywords
Copper nanoclusters
Titanium dioxide
Static contact angle
Hydrophilic property
Photonic efficiency
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The author declares that there are no known conflicts of interest related to the work reported in this study.
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