Highly efficient photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has been achieved by TiO2 nanorods (TNRs) decorated with Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs). The experimental analysis has indicated that the AuNPs has contributed to the plasmon resonance energy transfer/surface plasmon resonance-mediated hot electron injection and the GQDs contributed to the improved electron injection. The synergistic effect, which could be due to exciton-plasmon interactions and/or nonresonance energy transfer between the AuNPs and GQDs, is attributed to the superior PEC activity of the TNRs, which lead to a high photocurrent density of 1.75 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs RHE. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.