Although many efforts have been done on the photocatalytic properties of anodic TiO2 nanotubes, much less work is done on the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 nanowires. Self-organized anodic TiO2 nanowire arrays have been fabricated using a simple electrochemical approach and used as photocatalysts in photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dyes. Here we found for the first time TiO2 nanowires have better photocatalytic properties and incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) than TiO2 nanotubes. N doped TiO2 nanowires showed further enhancement in photodegradation activity and photocurrent response in the visible region. Such TiO2 nanowires are expected to have great potential in photodegradation of pollutants, photovoltaic solar energy conversion and water splitting for hydrogen generation as well. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.