Fluorine and nitrogen co-doped TiO2 (F-N-TiO2) photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activities were facilely synthesized by a simple one-step hydrothermal method using Ti(SO4)(2) as an economical precursor, and hydrofluoric acid and ammonia as F and N source, respectively. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of produced nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N-2 adsorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) methods. The synergistic effects of F and N doping were systematically examined by changing the molar ratio of F/N. Compared with the un-doped F or N mono-doped TiO2, the co-doped samples exhibited significantly improved photocatalytic performance due to their synergistic effects under visible light. It was shown that F dopant promoted the crystal growth and crystallinity of samples, while N dopant hindered it to some extent, which resulted in the tunable particle size of obtained F-N-TiO2 materials. The effects of F and N dopants on the enhanced photocatalytic activity of modified TiO2 materials were also discussed. The degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) was achieved at 97.31% after 5 h reaction under visible light over the optimized sample of FN3.5T. The materials also showed excellent stability according to the recycling tests of the photodegradation of MB. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.