A modified alkaline hydrothermal method via adding the ethanol treatment to the intermediates was developed to synthesize TiO2 nanobelts, in which the main phase is anatase. Compared with the previous reported TiO2 nanobelts obtained without the ethanol treatment, the new TiO2 nanobelts obtained through the ethanol assisted route are with much improved anatase crystallinity and a sharply reduced amount of TiO2-B phase, as well as a significantly higher photocatalytic activity that is even better than P25 for degrading Rhodamine-B under the ultraviolet light irradiation, which apparently correlates to the increased contents and crystallinity of anatase. The mechanism of ethanol treatment is also discussed based on the FTIR results. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.