Heterostructured SnO2-pillared Co-doped tantalotungstate nanohybrid was assembled by H1+3xTa1-x Co(x)WO6 nanosheets and SnO2 nanoparticles in an alternate stacking fashion by an exfoliation-restacking route. It was revealed that the cobalt element in the resultant materials is bivalent and that the as-prepared pillared nanohybrid is mesoporous with a specific surface area of about 80 m(2) g(-1). The pillared nanohybrid exhibited an excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue under visible-light irradiation, attributed to the narrowing of the band-gap separation, the strong electronic coupling between the guest and the host, and the expansion of the surface area. The observation highlights the validity of exfoliated oxide-semiconductor nanosheets as effective building blocks for developing efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts for solar energy utilization. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.