Studies on the oxygenation of human blood by photocatalytic action

Abstract:  The present article gave the proof of concept for oxygenating human blood using the established principles of photocatalytic action of anatase TiO₂ thin films in generating oxygen from water. The photocatalytic action involves the absorption of the UV optical energy (365 nm) to split water available in the blood into oxygen and hydrogen, and the generated oxygen is attached to the hemoglobin. In the present study, an enhanced catalytic action was achieved by preparing the nanosized anatase TiO₂ thin films on tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films, forming TiO₂/ITO semiconducting junction. These TiO₂ and ITO thin films and the semiconducting junctions were grown by the reactive DC Magnetron sputtering technique (using pure metallic targets) at room temperature (300 K) and subsequently annealed at 870 K for 60 min. The annealing process (i) influenced the formation of the anatase phase of TiO₂; and (ii) diffused indium from ITO into TiO₂, forming InTi₂O₅. The work functions of ITO and InTi₂O₅ were measured to be 4.72 and 4.76 eV, respectively. The higher efficacy of the photocatalytic action was attributed to the lower work function of ITO. The results clearly show that the photocatalytic action increases the oxygen content in the blood significantly.