In the past years, nano-sized Nb2O5 has been widely as a potential photocatalyst due to its good chemical stability and higher conduction band edge than TiO2. However, the photocatalytic application of Nb2O5 is limited by vide band gap ( 3.4-4 eV) because only UV light could be harvested. In this work, Nb2O5-based photocatalyst, AgNb2O5F, was developed by solid-state reaction. The phase formation and surface characteristics were investigated. AgNb2O5F has a direct allowed transition with band energy of 2.68 eV. It has a highly positive valence band. The photocatalysis degradation of MB solutions by Nb2O5 is less than 10% after the light irradiation (lambda > 420 nm) in 120 min. AgNb2O5F shows a rapid degradation, which is 83% under the same conditions. AgNb2O5F presents more efficient degradation of organic dyes than Nb2O5. This semiconductor also keeps stabilities for photo-corrosions and photo-degradation reactions. The photocatalytic activities were discussed on the luminescence and decay lifetimes. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.