In this research, thin bismuth oxide films were prepared through the sot-gel method. In order to study the influence of bismuth oxide crystal phases on the photocatalytic properties of bismuth oxide films, these films were annealed at different temperatures and then applied to decompose a typical textile industry pollutant (Rhodamine B). Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and profilometry were applied to characterize these films. It has been found that different annealing temperatures cause the transformation of different bismuth oxide crystal phases, which leads to the different removals of Rhodamine B photolyzed using bismuth oxide films as photocatalyst. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.