Butyltitanate, ethanol and glacial acetic acid were chosen as titanium source, solvent and chelating agent, respectively, via a sol–gel method combined impregnation method to prepare N, Fe co-doped and WO 3 compounded photocatalyst TiO 2 powder. The synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance UV–Vis spectra (UV-DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde was employed to investigate the catalytic activity. The results show that the degradation rate is 77.61% in 180min under UV light irradiation when the concentration of N is fixed on, and the optimum proportioning ratio of n(Fe):n(W):n(Ti) is 0.5:2:100.