Metal nanoparticles/TiO2 systems can generate photo-charge carriers to drive chemical reactions or induce photocurrents in photovoltaic systems. Gold and silver nanoparticles can exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance and enhance the charge carrier density by several energy transfer mechanisms. This thesis combined magnetron sputtering thin film deposition and thermal annealing to synthesize mono-metallic gold and bimetallic gold-core silver-shell nanoparticles to correlate the activity of the particles with their properties.<eng>
