Cerium-doped titanium dioxide nano-powders were prepared through the sol-gel method and the compound samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV/Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS). The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of phenol in water. The results of XRD, TEM, and DRS show that pure TiO2 and Ce-doped TiO2 powder crystallines are a mixture of anatase and rutile;the doping can retard the development of the grain size of TiO2 and decrease the diameter of TiO2 from more than 20nm of pure TiO2 to about 10 nm;the doped TiO2 can improve the light absorption of TiO2 and suitable doping content tends to move the DRS spectrum of TiO2 towards visible light, but too much doping is not good for the light absorption ability.The results of the photocatalytic experiments show that doping with Ce content of 0.08 % ～ 0.4 % can increase the photocatalytic activity of TiO2;however, doping with Ce content of 0.5 % ～ 2.5 % can significantly decrease the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. The favorite doping content is 0.4 % in the range of our experiments.