A single-step pyrolysis assisted route towards the large scale fabrication of metal oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3, CO3O4 and NiO) ingrained in graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) is demonstrated. Urea, an abundantly available precursor, plays a dual role during the synthesis: while it acts as a reducing agent, it also gets converted to GCN. The formation of GCN and the in-situ growth and embedment of oxide nanoparticles are discussed on the basis of the experimental results. The wide absorption of the samples in the visible light region makes them suitable for nonlinear transmission and photocatalytic activity studies. Visible light photocatalytic activities of the samples are studied by monitoring the degradation of Rhodamine B dye. Optical limiting properties of the prepared samples are studied through the open aperture z-scan technique using 5 ns laser pulses at a wavelength of 532 nm. The cost-efficient and time saving synthetic approach is complemented by the magnetic behaviour of the samples, which enables their use as recyclable photocatalyst and magnetically controllable optical limiters. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.