When a metal oxide is irradiated by gamma rays, the irradiated surface becomes hydrophilic. This surface phenomenon is called as radiation induced surface activation (RISA). In order to investigate radiation-induced and photo-induced hydrophilicity, the contact angles of water droplets on a titanium dioxide surface were measured in terms of irradiation intensity and time for gamma rays of cobalt-60 and for ultraviolet rays. Reciprocals of the contact angles increased in proportion to irradiation time before the contact angles reached their super-hydrophilicity state. The reciprocals of contact angles correlate well with integrated intensity by a straight line, regardless of the irradiation intensity and time. Radiation-induced and photo-induced hydrophilicity phenomena are identical to each other in this regard. In addition, an effect of ambient gas was investigated. In pure argon gas, the contact angle remains the same against the irradiation time. This clearly shows that a certain humidity in ambient gas is required to take the place of RISA hydrophilicity. A single crystal titanium dioxide (100) surface was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). After irradiation with gamma rays, a peak was found in the O 1s spectrum, indicating the adsorption of dissociative water to a surface 5-fold coordinate titanium site, and the formation of a surface hydroxyl group. We conclude that the RISA hydrophilicity is caused by chemisorption of the hydroxyl group on the surface.
