A TiO2 nanofiber from polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/TiO2 was prepared with the electrospinning technique to decompose ethylene through photocatalytic oxidation. The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanofiber was improved by simply increasing the alkoxide concentration ranging from 50 to 75%. The experimental results revealed that both initial percent decomposition and overall percent decomposition are noticeably improved with the increase of alkoxide compositions. SEM characterization showed that the microstructure and specific surface area of the nanofibers can be effectively optimized with the alkoxide concentration increasing. Meanwhile, a comparison in photocatalytic reactivity between TiO2 nanofiber and commercial photocatalyst P25 was also done. It was found out that the TiO2 nanofiber has a slight edge over P25 powder in terms of decomposition efficiency. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.