Nanoparticles of TiO2
were successfully prepared from pre-sputtered Ti films using the controlled thermal oxidation. The
effect of oxidation temperature on structural, morphological and optical properties in addition to photocatalysis activity of
the sputtered films was tested and explained. Analysis of XRD and EDAX elucidated the enhancement in crystallization
and oxygen content with the increase of oxidation temperature. SEM depicted the formation of very fine nanoparticles with
no specific border on the films oxidized at 550 and 600 °C, whilst crystallites with larger size of approximately from 16 to
23 nm have been observed for the film oxidized at 650 °C. Both optical transmission and refractive index were increased
with increasing the oxidation temperature. A red shift in the absorption edge was obtained for the films oxidized at 650 °C
compared to that oxidized at 600 °C. The photocatalysis tests demonstrated the priority of 600 °C nanoparticle films to
decompose methyl orange (MO) more than 650 °C treated film.