Anatase TiO2 was prepared by a facile sol-gel method at low temperature through tailoring the pH of sol-gel without calcination. As a control, anatase TiO2 was also synthesized by the conventional sol-gel process, in which calcination at 500 degrees C was required to transform the amorphous oxide into highly crystalline anatase. As-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). Their photocatalytic activities were evaluated by degradation of methyl orange under UV light irradiation. On the basis of experiment results, it could be concluded that TiO2 prepared by low temperature route showed more advantages in small particle size, highly dispersion nature, abundance of surface hydroxyl groups, strong PL signal, and high photocatalytic activity over TiO2 obtained by the conventional sol-gel process. Furthermore, the reason of the former possessing higher photocatalytic activity was discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.