Generally, one-dimensional nanowires (NWs) show higher electron mobility than their nanoparticles, due to that they can provide a direct transport channel for photogenerated carriers of the assembled devices. In this work, gallium nitride (GaN) NWs prepared by electrospinning technique were applied into as a substitute for GaN particles (GaN-P) in GaN-based photoelectrochemical (PEC) self-powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors. Results show the UV photodetectors based on GaN-NWs can exhibit a rapid response (t(r) = 0.28 s, t(d) = 0.25 s), which is highly improved compared to that of the GaN-P based device (t(r) = 0.37 s, t(d) = 0.3 s). Moreover, the GaN-NW UV photodetectors also perform high reproducibility and stability (testing for 80 days). This research indicates that the GaN-NW-based photoanodes will further widen the advancements for PEC-type self-powered UV photodetectors. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.