In this paper, highly efficient Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) towards photocatalytic H-2 evolution was successfully fabricated by SiO2 loading and high temperature calcination. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman shifts revealed CZTS was pure phase with kesterite structure. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and high resolution TEM showed CZTS could maintain nanoscale size and kesterite structure after being calcined. The SiO2 loading was found to be an efficient approach to avoid the aggregation of CZTS nanocrystals during high temperature calcination. As the elevated calcination temperature, the crystallinity of CZTS increased without observable size change, which suggested the no change on the specific surface area. All CZTS/SiO2 exhibited superior photocatalytic H-2 evolution. Especially, the photocatalytic H-2 evolution rates for per unit mass CZTS was significantly enhanced, which was mainly attributed to the good dispersion, the improved crystallinity and the less loss of specific surface area during high temperature calcination. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.