A free-standing, large area, oriented single-crystal rutile TiO2 nanowire arrays with a controlled length in the range of 10-80 mu m are prepared via a facile one-step synthesis. The growth process is studied systematically in an appropriate amount of H2O2 and HCl solution under hydrothermal conditions. The length of the nanowires can be easily tuned by varying the experimental parameters, including reaction temperature and reaction time. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that the nanowires have single-crystal structure. Furthermore, the photoluminescence characteristics and photocatalytic properties of oriented single-crystal rutile TiO2 nanowires was discussed in this paper, respectively. It is found that the increased reaction temperature is helpful to photocatalytic reactivity and photoluminescence properties. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.