In this work, the design of cerium doped TiO2 nanomaterials with tuned structural and textural properties is reported. The influence of the cerium content of doped TiO2 solids (x = 1 to 5 wt%) on the photocatalytic degradation of formic acid using UV-A light was evaluated.The best photocatalytic activity was reached for 1 wt% of cerium.The effect of post-thermal treatments was also herein highlighted by varying the calcination temperature between 400 degrees C and 700 degrees C for simultaneously doped- and cerium-free TiO2 samples. Characterization was performed by means of nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77K, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy. The presence of Ce limits the growth of TiO2 crystallite sizes during the post-thermal treatment and favors stabilization of the TiO2 anatase phase. The presence of cerium also increases the number of surface defects and transforms them to non-radiative centers able to capture the photogenerated electrons as observed by PL spectroscopy. This would leave photogenerated holes available improving consequentlythe photocatalytic activity for the oxidation of formic acid. Finally, a possible pathway mechanism is proposed to confirm the obtained results. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.