A series of silver doped butterfly-like TiAg clusters with two Ag ions panelled on a Ti surface.

Silver doped TiO (Ag-TiO) materials show high activity and good stability in photocatalysis, but the mechanism could not be illustrated clearly due to their imprecise and inhomogeneous characteristics. Ag-doped titanium-oxo clusters (Ag-TOCs) with an exact crystal structure, which are rarely reported, are beneficial for further understanding structure-property relationships. Herein, six new Ag-TOCs with a butterfly-like TiAg core have been synthesized through facile solvothermal reactions, in which two Ag ions are successfully linked to the surface of the Ti core. Of interest, the Ti unit of the TiAg core is similar to that found in the anatase structure and may be a promising model for Ag-TiO materials. The band gaps of these Ag-TOCs show different values mainly affected by different ligands. DFT calculations revealed that the lowest energy bands of Ag-TOCs are attributed to the Ag-to-TiO core charge transfer bands. Additionally, all Ag-TOCs exhibit good photoelectric response and high photodegradation activity towards organic dyes.