Photocatalysis offers a promising route to address the challenges of future energy production and anthropogenic environmental pollution. Here we demonstrated the synthesis of a high activity Ag/TiO2 photocatalyst through a two-step, sol-gel and mechanothermal decomposition method employing a silver acetate precursor. Bulk and surface characterization revealed the formation of dispersed metallic silver nanoparticles (similar to 9 nm diameter) decorating anatase crystallites (similar to 14 nm) which stabilized a significant concentration of Ti3+ surface species. Synergy between silver and titania enhanced the photophysical properties, narrowing the band gap and suppressing charge-carrier recombination. Ag/TiO2 exhibited good visible light activity and excellent stability over 3 cycles for the aqueous phase photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange dye (38 mu mol/h/g(cat)), and excellent hydrogen production from water splitting (910 mu mol/h/g(cat)). (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.