Tantalum tungsten bronze(TaxWO3)nanowires were successfully synthesized via hydrothermal method using TaCl5 and Na2WO4·2H2O as raw materials. The morphology, crystal structure and optical properties of synthesized products were characterized by means of XRD, TEM, SEM, UV-Vis and Raman technologies. The XRD results showed that TaxWO3 nanowire exhibited hexagonal structure. By increasing the doping content, the cell parameter was kept increasing gradually till Ta/W=0.04, then it remained almost constant. The UV-Vis diffraction spectrum analysis showed that the absorption peaks redshifted, the band gap energy decreased with increasing the doping content. The Raman peaks moved with a downshift, and the peak gradually became broader, which further proved the influence of the tantalum doping for tungsten oxide. The reactions of decomposing liquid rhodamine B solution showed that the nanosized TaxWO3 had a high photo-catalytic activity.