Hydroxyapatite supported N-doped carbon quantum dots for visible-light photocatalysis

• A novel hydroxyapatite (HA) supported N-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) composite was developed.
• N-CQDs were successfully coupled with HA.
• The HA/N-CQDs composite exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity, which was almost two times that of N-CQDs.

Development of effective and green photocatalysts that are sensitive to visible light is highly crucial. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a new hydroxyapatite (HA) supported N-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) photocatalyst via a facile chemical strategy. The FTIR and TEM results confirmed that N-CQDs were successfully coupled with HA. The formed HA/N-CQDs composite exhibited a pronounced photocatalytic performance upon the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible-light irradiation. The degradation rate of MB by the composite was almost two times that of N-CQDs. The mechanisms for the improvement of the photocatalytic performance of the composites were discussed on the basis of the results.