The photocatalytic degradation of gaseous trichloroethene (TCE) was investigated on immobilized ZnO/SnO2 coupled oxide in a flow-through photocatalytic reactor. It was found that gaseous photocatalysis is an efficient method for volatile organic compounds' abatement and air purification. Degradation of similar to100% was found for TCE at the concentrations examined, up to 400 ppmv, in a flow through dry synthetic gas stream. In our tested conditions, the flow rate had little influence on the photocatalytic degradation efficiencies of TCE, while the relative humidity had a significant influence on the photocatalytic degradation of TCE. The photocatalytic degradation efficiencies of TCE increased slowly below 20% relative humidity and then decreased as the relative humidity increased further. The deactivation of used immobilized photocatalyst was not observed within the 200 h testing period in the present experiment, although the surface of the photocatalyst changed greatly during the use of the photocatalyst. (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.