In this study, porous Nb2O5 photocatalyst materials are prepared through thermal oxidation. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), at a temperature of 500 degrees C, an optimum porous Nb2O5 photocatalyst is obtained with an O/Nb ratio close to the theoretical value of 2.5. The X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD) result shows that at the main diffraction angles of 22.63 degrees and 28.33 degrees, crystalline diffraction signals of Nb2O5 appear with corresponding diffraction planes of (001) and (180). When CuO, NiO and Pt catalysts are added to Nb2O5 as the cocatalyst for comparison, the maximum hydrogen production efficiency for a CuO/Nb2O5 photocatalyst is achieved (1405 mu mol h(-1) g(-1)). However, when NiO and Pt are added as cocatalysts, the hydrogen production efficiencies are decreased to 800 mu mol h(-1) g(-1) and 510 mu mol h(-1) g(-1), respectively. Through the photoelectrochemical analysis, it finds that the CO signal peak with incomplete oxidation significantly increases as the reaction time increases, thus causing CO to adsorb on the catalyst surface (such as NiO or Pt) leading to catalyst poisoning. This results in reduced catalyst performance and hydrogen production rates. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.