V-doped TiO2 with V/Ti ratio of 1-5% has been synthesized by hydrothermal method and then characterized by XRD, TEM, BET specific surface area, XPS and UV-vis. absorption spectra. The photocatalytic activity of the as-synthesized samples was investigated by the degradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. Density functional theory (DFT) based calculations were performed to investigate the mechanism of band gap narrowing, the shift of light absorption edge, the location of V in the TiO2 lattice and the variation in electronic and optical properties of TiO2 with the increase of V doping concentration. Irrespective of the V doping concentration, TEM images indicate that all the doped samples were composed of equiaxed spherical anatase TiO2 particles with good crystallinity and uniform particle size distribution. Both the experimental results from XPS survey and the theoretical calculation argue that the doped V replaces the lattice Ti and form substitutional impurity. The visible light absorption can be optimized by adjusting the V doping concentration. Among the doped samples with different V doping concentrations, the sample with V/Ti ratio of 2% depicts better visible light photocatalytic activity due to the enhanced visible light absorption and improved separation of electron hole pairs. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.