In order to get high degradation efficiency in the visible region, different concentrations of active transition metals such as nickel and ruthenium were impregnated over titania synthesised by sol-gel method. The physico chemical properties of the catalysts were studied by various instrumental techniques such as X-ray diffraction, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, BET surface area analysis, Transmission Electron Microscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The photocatalytic decolourisation/degradation of a widely used dye namely Amidoblack-10B was studied over metal loaded titania under both UV and visible light irradiations and monitored by using UV-visible spectrophotometer/TOC analyser. Photocatalytic activities of bare and metal titania catalysts were compared. The optimised reaction parameters for the complete decolourisation of AB-10B over bare titania under UV irradiation were found to be: 0.15 g of TiO2, 3 x 10(-4) M [AB-10B] at its natural pH. Among the catalysts, Ni/TiO2 (1%) and Ru/TiO2 (1%) decolourised completely 100% at 330 min and 210 min with rate constant values of 9.39 x 10(-3) min(-1) and 2.3 x 10(-2) min(-1) respectively. Both nickel and ruthenium were found to be recyclable upto 3 cycles without any loss in their photocatalytic activities. The extent of degradation of Amidoblack-10B and its mineralisation were confirmed further by HPLC. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.