Titanium oxide powders are currently applied in the degradation of pollutants of air and water, due to the high photocatalytic efficiency. However, the use of powders implicate furder water treatments to separate the catalyst from the resulting water solution, which makes the process more expensive. Thin films, on the other side, represent a one step water cleaning process where the catalyst is adhered onto the substrate. In this case, there are no catalyst loses and water can be obtain ready to use. In this work we produced TiO₂ thin films using titanium IV acetylacetonate and methanol as precursors for the solution deposited by spin coating. The samples were thermally treated at 400°C for two hours to evaporate the organic compounds. This procedure was repeated three times in order to obtain thicker films. On the last layer, TiO₂ microspheres were adsorbed on the film surfaces previous to the heat treatment. The spheres were produce using titanium isopropoxide (Ti (ⁱOPr)₄) and anhydrous ethanol, having an average diameter of 2 microns. This work makes the comparison between plain TiO₂ films, TiO₂ films with adsorbed microspheres and TiO₂ films with commercial TiO₂ powder adsorbed to the surface. Photocatalytic activity was drastically increased when the surface is modified, either with the microspheres or with commercial powder. Films with microspheres degradate the methyl orange more than ten times faster than plain films, and can be reused with almost the same efficiency that is not conserved in the case of films with commercial powder adhered to the surface. The particle sizes are also related with the photocatalytic activity. Samples with titanium oxide microspheres represent a good option for faster water treatment processes.

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