Modification of MCM-41 nanopore materials was found to improve the catalyst activity because it would provide an effective environment for increasing the number of active surface sites for molecular interaction. Hence in this article, with an attempt to extend light absorption of TiMCM-41 based photocatalyst toward the visible light range and to eliminate the rapid recombination of excited electrons/holes during photoreaction, a new type of photocatalyst Au/TiMCM-41 was prepared. The crystal phase composition and surface morphology of the Au/TiMCM-41 photocatalyst were comprehensively examined by X-ray differential detection and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The analytical results of UV-visible diffused reflectance spectra indicated that the absorbance in the visible region above 500 nm for Au/TiMCM-41 photocatalyst made it possible to be excited by visible light. The experiment demonstrated that the photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using Au/TiMCM-41 photocatalyst was significantly higher than that using TiMCM-41 photocatalyst. Possibilities to enhance catalyst performance further by using electron acceptors are also discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.