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Indium tin oxide (ITO) and titanium oxide (TiO2) thin films were deposited on glass substrates using electron beam evaporation. Amorphous and crystalline films can be obtained at different annealing temperatures. The thin films are characterized by UV–vis, XRD spectra and AFM analysis. The degradation of X6G (C.I. Reactive Yellow 2), commonly used as textile dye, can be photocatalyzed by ITO and TiO2 thin films. The degradation can be completed in the order of minutes at optimal operational parameters. Using advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and comparison between photoactivity of both films reveal that, indium tin oxide can be used as a suitable alternative to TiO2 thin films for water treatment.

The photocatalytic degradation of a non-biodegradable azo dye called (C.I. Direct 80, Red Sulphonyl 3BL) was investigated using TiO2 thin films in aqueous solution under irradiation of a mercury lamp Philips (UV-C) light source. The effect of operational parameters, i.e., annealing temperature of thin film, substrate nature on which TiO2 films were deposited, film thickness, pH of the solution, dye concentration, and irradiation time on the degradation rate of azo dye aqueous solutions was examined. Results show that the employment of efficient photocatalyst and the selection of optimal operational parameters lead to complete decolorization. The best conditions for maximum photocatalytic degradation were found to be pH 1 at 5 ppm concentration of dye over TiO2 thin films deposited on glass substrate coated with indium-tin oxide having 350 nm thicknesses annealed at 550 °C. The samples are all in the complete anatase phase and the particle size is in nanometer scale which is confirmed by XRD pattern analysis.