To achieve the semiconductor photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells targeting the industry applications with commercial competitiveness, high efficiency and good stability are requisite properties. To improve the PEC response, the vertically-aligned silicon microwire arrays (SiMWAs) modified with isolated Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) and conformal TiO2 ultrathin film (TiO2/Pt@SiMWAs) are fabricated and examined in this study. The modified system shows the significantly enhanced responses and operation stability, that is, an enhancement of similar to 30.0% in saturation photocurrent density (Jsat), a cathodic shift of similar to 0.85 V (relative to the bare SiMWAs) in applied potential for Jsat, and an attenuation ratio of the photocurrent <1.5% during 1800-sec-continuous operation in an aqueous electrolyte. The underlying mechanisms are attributed to: (1) PtNP5 concentrate the incident photons, promote the photo-carrier separation, and catalyze the chemical reaction at the photoelectrode-electrolyte interfaces; (2) conformal TiO2 ultrathin film protects the SiMWAs from photo-oxidation/corrosion as well as suppresses the surface recombination. Our results indicate a feasible route for the practical applications of oxidizable and corrodiblesemiconductor micro-/nanostructures in the fields of PEC solar cells, water splitting, photodegradation, and so on. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.