The invention provides a photocatalytic material and a preparation method and application thereof. According to the photocatalytic material, nano titanium oxide covers a gold nano rod to form a core-shell structure; the nano titanium oxide is chemically bonded with modifying molecules on the surface of the gold nano rod to cover the surface of the gold nano rod. According to the photocatalytic material, organic molecules containing sulfydryl and carboxyl modify the whole surface of the gold nano rod, to prepare nano titanium oxide; under the mutual action between a modifying molecule group on the surface of the gold nano rod and a surface group of the nano titanium oxide, the nano titanium oxide covers the gold nano rod, to obtain the photocatalytic material with the core-shell structure. The thickness of the coverage layer of the nano titanium oxide in the photocatalytic material with the core-shell structure is adjustable, so that the structure is stable and the light absorption performance is excellent; furthermore, the preparation method is simple, the reaction conditions are mild, and environment friendliness is realized; the photocatalytic material is expected to be applied to various aspects such as photocatalysis, solar batteries, and photoelectric conversion, and has a wide application prospect.