Palladium nanoparticles well-dispersed on BiOBr surfaces were successfully prepared via a two-step process, namely hydrothermal synthesis of BiOBr followed by photo deposition of palladium. Surface-exposed palladium nanoparticles may improve the harvesting capacity of visible light photons via the surface plasmonic resonance effect to produce extra electrons. Palladium is an excellent electron acceptor, and therefore favours the separation of photo generated electron/hole pairs. As a result, palladium significantly improves the photo catalytic activity of BiOBr in the removal of organic pollutants (phenol) under visible light irradiation. In addition to as-prepared samples which were comprehensively characterized, the mechanism for the enhancement via the deposition of palladium nano particles was also proposed based on results. This work may serve as solid evidence to confirm that surface-deposited palladium nanoparticles are capable of improving photo catalytic activity, and that photo deposition may be an effective approach to load metal nanoparticles onto a surface. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.