Single-step Production of Photocatalytic Surfaces via Direct Laser Interference Patterning of Titanium

State of the art approaches to produce photocatalytic surfaces generally require multiple processing steps to achieve highly active surfaces. Following recent trends to facilitate the production of active surfaces, this work presents a single-step method to create porous photocatalytic surfaces via direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) of a titanium substrate with pulses in the picosecond range. The resulting surfaces contain a variety of titanium oxides while both their composition and morphology can be controlled through the laser process parameters. This makes it possible to tailor these surfaces for specific applications such as antimicrobial surfaces, implant materials or water treatment. Surface characterization was executed by applying scanning electron microscopy complemented by focused ion beam cross-sectioning and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy as well as gracing incidence X-ray diffractometry. The photocatalytic activity achieved by different laser parameters is assessed by methylene blue degradation under UV-A light. As DLIP is already established in industrial applications, this approach could greatly facilitate the use of photocatalytic surfaces for water treatment or medical applications, as it does not require nanoparticle synthesis or additional coating steps.