A simple process was developed for preparation of highly photoactive V and F codoped TiO2-SiO2 composite film. The as-prepared specimens were characterized using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The BET results revealed that the surface area of the modified TiO2 sample was 413 m2 g-1, while pure TiO2 103 m2 g-1. The PL results showed that the recombination rate of the photo-generated electrons and holes was effectively prohibited via the multi-modification. The photocatalytic activities of the films were evaluated by degradation of methyl green (MG) dye. Compared with pure TiO2 film, the multi-modified TiO2 film exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity and clearly responsive to the visible light. Keywords: V and F codoping; TiO2-SiO2 composite film; Photocatalytic activity

Ag surface doped TiO2-SiO2 composite films had been synthesized by the sol-gel method and doping processes, in which tetrabutyl titanate (Ti(OC4H9)4) and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) were chosen as the precursors and silver nitrate (AgNO3) was chosen as silver source. The experimental results revealed that the Ag surface doped TiO2-SiO2 composite film was composed of uniform round-like nano-particles or aggregates with the size range of 4–10 nm. Compared with pure TiO2 film, Ag surface doped TiO2-SiO2 composite film exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity. It is believed that the microstructure of the composite film is responsible for improving the photocatalytic activity.