Two kinds of TiO2 nanometer thin films were prepared on stainless steel by the reverse micellar and sol-gelmethods, respectively. The calcined TiO2 thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force micros-copy (AFM), BET surface area and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Photocatalytic activity was evaluated byphotocatalytic decoloration of methyl orange aqueous solution. The results showed that the TiO2 thin films prepared by re-verse micellar method (designated as RM-TiO2 films) showed higher photocatalytic activity than those by sol-gel method(designated as SG-TiO2 films). This is attributed to the fact that the former is composed of smaller monodispersed sphericalparticles with a size of about 15 nm and possesses higher surface areas.