Hitherto TiO2 is the most popular catalyst for photocatalytic H-2 generation and reduction of organic pollutants due to its chemical inertness, high activity, and abundance. In this work, ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-8 supported TiO2 nanoparticles loaded with non-noble metal Ni, denoted as Ni-TiO2@CMK-8 are fabricated for application in photocatalytic H-2 generation. Our results demonstrate that the developed composite exhibit exceptional photocatalytic activity for H-2 generation (3556 mu mol g(-1)) under 300 W Xe lamp irradiation (with an external quantum efficiency of 37.9%), which is around 10 times higher than pure TiO2 and 4 times that of TiO2@CMK-8. The enhanced photocatalytic performance is attributed to the well-dispersed TiO2 in the ordered mesoporous carbon structure of CMK-8. The performance is boosted by the black body-like light absorbance of CMK-8 and plasmonic effect of Ni. Enhanced UV-visible light absorbance, large surface area and the loaded Ni metal synergistically improve the charge-carrier kinetics to attain highly efficient photocatalytic H-2 generation. The Ni-TiO2@CMK-8 composite shows enhanced activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol as well. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.