The composite of aluminum-substituted mesoporous silica (Al-HMS) molecular sieve coupled with CdS (CdS/Al-HMS) was prepared by template, ion exchange and sulfurization reactions. The result of low angle XRD patterns showed that the low content of 2.5 wt% CdS is incorporated inside Al-HMS channels. The results of diffuse reflectance UV-visible spectra and fluorescence emission spectra exhibited that the absorption edge and photoluminescence peak for CdS/Al-HMS are blue-shifted about 75 nm and 40 nm in comparison to bulk CdS, respectively. The activities of hydrogen production by photocatalytic degradation of formic acid were evaluated under visible light irradiation (lambda >= 420 nm) and the CdS/Al-HMS loaded 0.07 wt% Ru showed the highest H-2 evolution at a rate of 3.7 mL h(-1) with an apparent quantum yield of 1.2% at 420 nm. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.