Preparation and Photocurrent Performance of Highly Ordered Titania Nanotube Implanted with Ag/Cu Metal Ions

Ag/Cu-doped titania nanotubes (Ag/TiNT, Cu/TiNT) are prepared by a metal vapor vacuum arc implanter. A scanning electronic microscope is employed for microstructural characterization. The photo-current performance of doped titania nanotubes under UV and visible light is tested by an electrochemical workstation CS300UA, the results show that the absorption edge of both Ag/TiNT and Cu/TiNT samples shifts to the visible light region and the band gap becomes narrower. Ag/TiNT possesses better photo-current ability than Cu/TiNT under UV and visible light. Titania doped with Ag and Cu metal ions is also studied based on the linearized augmented plane-wave method implemented by WIEN2k package, the result becomes better with the experimental performance.