In this work, porous titania was prepared on bulk Ti by chemical oxidation, and then nanostructured silver (Ag) was deposited on titania surface by ion beam sputtering. After annealing treatment, Ag/TiO2 composites were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results indicated that a nano-porous titania layer with mean pore size of 150nm and thickness of 1 mu m was formed by chemical oxidation at 80 degrees C for 45 min. There were three Ag species (Ag (0), Ag (1+), and Ag (2+)) on composites surface after annealing treatment, and metallic Ag content achieved maximum value with annealing temperature of 500 degrees C in air. Ag showed high thermal stability being partly attributed to the inhibiting the diffusion of Ag by the underlying porous titania. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.