The paper demonstrates that the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 towards the decomposition of gaseous benzene in a batch reactor can be greatly improved by loading TiO2 on the surface of CeO2-ZrO2. The research investigates the effects of three metals doping into Ce0.45Zr0.5O2 on photocatalytic activity of TiO2/Ce0.45Zr0.45M0.1OX (M = Y, La, Mn). The prepared photocatalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, UV-vis diffuse reflectance and XPS analyses. BET surface area of TiO2/Ce0.45Zr0.45M0.1OX (M=Y, La, Mn) is smaller than that of Ce0.5Zr0.5O2. XRD results reveal that the deposited titania is highly dispersed as in the CeO2-ZrO2 matrix, doping M in the CeO2-ZrO2 lattice causes the changing of lattice space and the diffraction peaks shift to higher 20 position. Among these four catalysts, the band gap value of TiO2/Ce0.45Zr0.45La0.1Ox is the lowest. The binding energy value of Ti 2p(3/2) of four catalysts transfers to a lower value. The order of photocatalytic activity is TiO2/Ce0.45Zr0.45 La0.1OX> TiO2/Ce0.45Zr0.45Y0.1Ox.> TiO2/Ce-0.45 Zr0.45Mn0.1 Ox > TiO2/Ce-0.5 Zr0.5O2 >TiO2. The proposed mechanism is of electron transfer and the stronger absorption in the region 210-400 nm. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.