Engineering metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) into hierarchical structured materials is crucial for providing a viable platform to construct efficient catalysts and broaden their applications in energy conversion and photocatalysis. Here, a simple and efficient solid-state pyrolysis of Ti-MOFs (NH2-MIL-125) sacrificial template combined with a photo-reduction process was developed to construct a series of hierarchical TiO2 decorated with Pd nanoparticles. The hierarchical TiO2 inherited the well-defined rounded rectangular submicron-tablet from NH2-MIL-125 precursor and was constituted of uniform anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with an average size of 12 nm. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity for the hydrogen production from water-methanol solution was improved by the optimization of the content of Pd as a cocatalyst, and the maximum was achieved with a Pd loading of 1.5%. The rate of H-2 evolution of 1.5% Pd decorated hierarchical TiO2 (1.5% Pd/TiO2) reached to 979.7 mu mol h(-1) and 112.7 mu mol h(-1), under UV-vis light and simulated solar light, respectively. This unusual photocatalytic activity may be resulted from the positive synergetic effect of efficient light absorption, promoted separation and migration of photo induced electron-hole carriers. The work highlights the potential of the MOFs-based hierarchical TiO2 in the photocatalytic water splitting under solar light. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.