Metallic Ag deposited and Fe3+ ions doped anatase TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by one-step solvothermal method with using tetrabutyl titanate as precursor and ethanol as solvent. All prepared TiO2 samples were single anatase phase through XRD and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Compared with pure TiO2, Fe doped and Ag deposited TiO2 showed higher visible light absorption activity and lower electron-hole pair recombination rate. In all TiO2 samples, 4.5% Fe-4.5% Ag/TiO2 displayed the highest absorption intensity of visible light and lowest recombination rate of electron-hole pairs, its absorption wavelength edge moved remarkably with a red shift to 610 nm. Based on XPS and TEM analysis, Fe3+ located in the TiO2 lattice and metallic Ag particles deposited on the surface of it were detected, the particle sizes of Ag were about 2-3 nm. Average maximum H-2 production rate through water splitting was 515.45 mu mol h(-1) g(cat)(-1) using 4.5% Fe-4.5% Ag/TiO2 as catalyst (a measured time of 6 h, visible light irradiation, lambda > 400 nm). At last, the mechanism of H-2 production by water splitting under visible light irradiation was also proposed. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.