Bimetallic PtNi-decorated graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanotubes were prepared through calcining the mixture of urea and thiourea in the presence of Pluronic F127, followed by deposition of bimetallic PtNi nanoparticles (NPs) via chemical reduction. It is found that the photocatalytic activity of PtNi/g-C3N4 nanotubes is strongly dependent on the molar ratio of Pt/Ni and the highest activity is observed for Pt1Ni1/g-C3N4. Under visible light (lambda > 420 nm) irradiation, the H-2 generation rate over Pt1Ni1/g-C3N4 nanotubes is 104.7 mu mol h(-1) from a triethanolamine (10 vol%) aqueous solution, which is higher than that of Pt/g-C3N4 nanotubes (98.6 mu mol h(-1)) and is about 47.6 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4 nanotubes. The cyclic photocatalytic reaction indicates that our Pt1Ni1/g-C3N4 nanotubes function as a stable photocatalyst for visible light-driven H-2 production. The effect of bimetallic PtNi NPs in the transfer and separation of photogenerated charge carriers occurring in the excited g-C3N4 nanotubes was investigated by performing photoelectrochemical and photoluminescence measurements. Our results reveal that bimetallic PtNi could replace Pt as a promising cocatalyst for photocatalytic H-2 evolution with better performance and lower cost. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.