Apertured TiO₂ microtubes have been fabricated by simple hydrolysis of titanium tetrachloride using ammonia in the presence of glacial acetic acid. The microtubes were doped by silver using the chemical deposition method. The morphology and microstructure characteristics of the apertured silver doped TiO₂ microtubes were characterized by means of the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermal analysis (TG-DTA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and N₂ absorption. The silver doped catalysts exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than the non-doped TiO₂ samples toward phenol degradation, the 2.0% Ag/TiO₂ sample gives the best result.

Key words: silver, doped, titanium dioxide, photocatalysis, phenol